Political party elites in Turkey: an analysis of background profiles

Official URL: http://192.168.1.20/record=b1558811 (Table of Contents)

Various demographical factors establish the profile of political party elites; these factors can, in turn, affect the characteristics of political parties. Information regarding the profiles of party elites thus enables the investigation of a party's characteristics terms of its ideological stance, recruitment patterns, organizational success and internal power relations/balances. Among political party elites, the sociological profiles of the local party elites can also be comparatively studied for various political parties in order to understand the similarities and differences across the parties. By scrutinizing age, gender, place of birth, education, occupation/job of local party elites, analyzing the socioeconomic composition of the parties is possible. Moreover, such studies enable developing a more comprehensive understanding about the ties, similarities and differences between the party elites and the electorate. Thus, the examination of socio-cultural and economic characteristics of the local political party elites makes possible unearthing who is elected to represent the electorate at the grassroots level of party organizations as well. By analyzing the main characteristics of personal profiles of the current leaders of the provincial and district branches of the Justice and Development Party [AKP] and the Republican People's Party [CHP], this thesis suggests answers to the question of 'What are the political consequences of the differences in the socio-economic profiles of the local party chairpersons for the AKP and the CHP in Turkish politics?' The findings show that, among other variables, occupation/job of the local chairpersons creates the most visible difference between these two parties.