Turkey’s constitutional referendum: The 16 April 2017 referendum in historical perspective

Turkey has had seven referendums since 1961, originally for seeking popular consent for the new constitutions of 1961 and 1982. The last five referendums functioned as tools for promoting the political agenda of the ruling political parties and their leaders, as these parties and leaders seemed to have aimed at changing the rules of the political game while attempting to eliminate the challenges and resistance from the opposition. Although the 1987 and 1988referendums failed to aid the governing parties, the last three referendums resulted in changing the regime of the country from democratic semi-parliamentarism to semi-presidentialism first (in 2007) and eventually to anunchecked authoritarian presidentialism. The outcome of the 16 April 2017Referendum was determined by partisanship in a highly conflictual polarized political milieu, which occurred under the influence of emergency measures, curtailed opposition, scuppered media and produced a regime that resembled nothing less than neo-patrimonial sultanism