Coalition politics in Turkey: 1991-2002

Official URL: http://192.168.1.20/record=b1379277 (Table of Contents)

Coalition government has been the dominant type of rule in Western Europe in the 20th century as countries increasingly reformed their electoral systems towards proportional representation. However, these governments are heavily criticized. They are argued to be difficult to form and govern, hence less durable compared to the majority party governments. This study aims to respond to these criticisms focusing on the Turkish coalition governments in the period between 1991 and 2002. It shows that the duration of party or coalition governments vary systematically between countries and within each country across time. Hence, the study mainly explores why some governments lasted long despite the political turmoil, economic crises and inter-party conflict, while others remained in power for merely a few months in Turkey. While discussing the dynamics of cabinet durability, it adopts a holistic approach in which all three phases of a government's life – formation, maintenance and termination, are analyzed in interaction. The study perceives coalition politics as a set of continuous bargaining processes protraction of which put an end to the governments. Therefore, it also focuses on the communication between the political actors, and attempts to explain the factors that increase the level of mistrust and information uncertainty in the bargaining environment. Finally, the analysis of the coalition politics in Turkey is located within the wider inquiry on the multiparty politics in Western European democracies.