INTRA-PARTY AUTOCRACY OF TURKEY’S PARTY SYSTEM

Abstract

Democratic systems are unthinkable without political parties. Since its transition to multi-party politics in 1950, Turkey has enjoyed a stable yet limited level of stability in its multi-party system. Despite all the democratic experience in electoral politics for more than half a century, democracy exists only between, not within political parties in Turkey. The political culture of Turkey still tolerates one man-driven, charismatic leader parties administered with excessively centralized and authoritarian leadership structures. Turkey’s parties are still controlled mostly by men. What they differ is not the presence or absence of intra-party democracy, but their type of intra-party autocracy. This study explains the roots of party autocracy culture in Turkey’s parties. In doing so, it also develops a theoretical framework for comprehending and explaining intra-party democracy in democratic systems in general and in Turkey. It also specifies sociological, institutional and competitive criteria of intra-party democracy such as political culture, legal framework, preferences of individual actors as well as many others including gender quota, tolerance for dissent and the degree of power centralization.