"Democratic opening," the legal status of non-muslim religious communities and the Venice Commission

This article deals with a recent opinion adopted by the Venice Commission at its meeting onMarch 12-13 concerning the legal status of non-Muslim religious communities in Turkey and the right of the Orthodox Patriarchate of Istanbul to use the title "ecumenical." On the first issue the Commission points out the difficulties that arise from the lack of legal personality for such communities, especially in matters related to access to courts and property ownership. The Commission urges Turkish authorities to attend to this problem by choosing from the many models of legal personality for religious groups practiced in European countries. On the second point, the Commission observes that the title ecumenical is a spiritual and ecclesiastical matter, and not a legal one. It concludes that unless Turkish authorities actively interfere with the use of such title by the Patriarchate, the simple refusal of the use of this title by Turkish authorities does not amount to a breach of the European Convention on Human Rights

Party prohibition cases: Different approaches by the Turkish constitutional court and the European Court of Human Rights

The article deals with the different approaches followed by the Turkish Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in party prohibition cases. The Turkish Constitution and even more so the Law on Political Parties contain a long list of party bans, the violation of which leads to the closure of the party by the Constitutional Court. The Turkish Constitutional Court, both under the 1961 and the 1982 Constitutions, interpreted these provisions in an exceedingly illiberal manner, and has so far closed down a total of 24 political parties. Turkish rules and practices concerning the prohibition of political parties are among the most important 'democracy deficits' of the Turkish political system. In the article, the Turkish Court's illiberal approach to party prohibition cases, especially those involving the protection of the national and territorial integrity of the state and of the principle of secularism, is compared with the much more liberal criteria developed by the ECtHR and the Venice Commission.© 2010 Taylor & Francis

Distributive politics and regional development: assessing the territorial distribution of Turkey’s public investment

Turkey is often perceived as a country with low bureaucratic capacity and prone to political manipulation and ‘pork-barrel’. This article tests whether this is the case, by analysing the extent to which politics, rather than equity and efficiency criteria, have determined the geographical allocation of public investment across the 81 provinces of Turkey between 2005 and 2012. The results show that although the Turkish government has indeed channelled public expenditures to reward its core constituencies, socioeconomic factors remained the most relevant predictors of investment. Moreover, in contrast to official regional development policy principles, we uncover the concentration of public investment in areas with comparatively higher levels of development. We interpret this as the state bureaucracy’s intentional strategy of focussing on efficiency by concentrating resources on ‘the better off among the most in need’

Measuring and Comparing Party Ideology and Heterogeneity

Estimates of party ideological positions in Western Democracies yield useful party-level information, but lack the ability to provide insight into intraparty politics. In this paper, we generate comparable measures of latent individual policy positions from elite survey data which enable analysis of elite-level party ideology and heterogeneity. This approach has advantages over both expert surveys and approaches based on behavioral data, such as roll call voting and is directly relevant to the study of party cohesion. We generate a measure of elite positions for several European countries using a common space scaling approach and demonstrate its validity as a measure of party ideology. We then apply these data to determine the sources of party heterogeneity, focusing on the role of intraparty competition in electoral systems, nomination rules, and party goals. We find that policy-seeking parties and centralized party nomination rules reduce party heterogeneity. While intraparty competition has no effect, the presence of these electoral rules conditions the effect of district magnitude

The Changing Waves of Migration from the Balkans to Turkey: A Historical Account

Ahmet İçduygu and Deniz Sert tell the history of migration from the Balkans to Turkey from the end of the nineteenth century to the present. They relate this history to nation-building, but also to economic conditions and specific Turkish concerns, such as the perceived need for immigration to compensate for a declining population at that time. They also demonstrate that after 1990, ethnic migration decreased and irregular labour migration became more important

Turkey: How far from consolidation?

[No abstract available

Debating unamendability: deadlock in Turkey's constitution-making process

Constitutional Conciliation Commission (Anayasa Uzlaşma Komisyonu—AUK) of Turkey, established after the 2011 general elections but called off after the commission could not overcome an impasse on a number of issues, was nevertheless a significant step in Turkey’s constitutional development. One of the issues that led to the deadlock in the commission was the issue of unamendable articles. A point of divide among the four parties that made up the commission was whether the new constitution would maintain the eternal clauses of the present constitution that entrench the republic form of the state, its characteristics, and its language or whether it would not include any irrevocable articles. Except the republic’s first constitution of 1921, the three constitutions of modern Turkey included unamendable constitutional provisions, which had previously led to political and constitutional controversies. The subject of unamendable articles was one of the last issues that the commission discussed before the 25 months of enterprise was dissolved. This article traces the evolution of unamendable articles in Turkish constitutions, examines the political parties’ proposals for the draft constitution aand analyzes the debates conducted within AUK. It concludes that members of the AUK held irreconcilable positions with respect to unamendability and unamendable articles, which contributed to the breakdown of the negotiations

Does Culture Matter? The Relevance of Culture in Politics and Governance in the Euro-Mediterranean Zone. ZEI Discussion Paper: 2002: C 111

[Table of Contents]: Culture and Governance in the Mediterranean – A Rationale and Overview, by Indra de Soysa and Peter Zervakis; The Relevance of Culture in Democratic Governance – Lessons from the Western Hemisphere, by Lawrence E. Harrison; Culture in Politics and Governance – European Experiences, by Klaus von Beyme; Penser L’Espace Mediterranean, by Mohammed Arkoun; Muslim and Western Civilization – Is Co-Prosperity and Peace Possible?, by Erich Weede; Political Culture and Democracy in Turkey, by Ergun Özbudun; The Crisis of Political Culture in the Arab World – A Conflict of Paradigms, by Paul Salem; Euro-Mediterranean Formations – Cultural Imperatives of System Change, by Dimitris K. Xenakis and Dimitris Chryssochoou; Cross-cultural Currents in the Mediterranean – What Prospects, Stephan Calleya; Politics and Governance in the Mediterranean, by Franck Biancheri; The Mediterranean - New Directions of Research and Policy-Making, by Ludger Kühnha

Turkish popular presidential elections: deepening legitimacy issues and looming regime change

This paper examines the politics of presidential elections in Turkey with particular reference to the 10 August 2014 presidential elections. It starts by scrutinising the change in the presidential election system from parliamentary to direct popular vote. It then probes the implementation of the new election rules, candidate selection, and the conduct of the campaign, followed by analysis of the election results and their influence on the Turkish record of democratisation. The paper concludes that the move to a partisan president elected by popular vote entails democratic dangers if the new incumbent does not abide by his or her constitutional role and attempts to intervene in government policy