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The Role and Treatment of Political Parties in Liberal Democracies with Reference to the United Kingdom, Turkey and the European Convention on Human Rights

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The Role and Treatment of Political Parties in Liberal Democracies with Reference to the United Kingdom, Turkey and the European Convention on Human Rights THE UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS FACULTY OF LAW THE ROLE AND TREATMENT OF POLITICAL PARTIES IN LIBERAL DEMOCRACIES WITH REFERENCE TO THE UNITED KINGDOM, TURKEY AND THE EUROPEAN CONVENTION ON HUMAN RIGHTS A thesis submitted to the University of Leeds in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Philosophy of Doctor Submitted By: Huseyin DEMIR BA in Public Administration, LLM in Constitutional Law The Candidate confirms that the work submitted is his own and that appropriate credit has been given where reference has been made to the work of others August, 2000/LEEDS TO MY MOTHER AYSE DEMIR AND MY SONS MUSTAFA MELIH AND MUHAMMED SENIH i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would firstly like to express my sincere and deep gratitude and thanks to my supervisor Prof. Clive Walker for his invaluable guidance, motivation and encouragement throughout the course of my study. I am very much indebted for his generosity with time, interest and friendship. I would also like to thank to my friends Havva Kok for her valuable comments on my work, Ibrahim Al-Zabin, Abid H. Sarwar and Mustafa Meric for their close support, friendship and encouragement. I am also grateful to Mrs. Mag Mayhew for her support by correcting my mistakes regarding English. My special thanks go to the Higher Education Council of Turkey and the University of Kirikkale, which sponsored me to complete my study. I would like mention my twin Hasan Demir and my brother Ayhan Demir for their help and support whenever I needed it. Finally, and most of all, I would like to acknowledge the tremendous support given to me throughout my study by my wife Hatice. She had to put up with me all the time and financially supported me throughout the last year of my study. In the end, I would like to mention our two sons Melih and Senih for the light in their eyes which stimulated me all the time. ii THE ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS This thesis analyses current situations of political parties in the UK and Turkey with reference to liberal democracy in general and the European Convention on Human Rights in particular. Political parties are essential elements of liberal democracies. In order to function properly, political parties must operate under the rights to freedoms of expression and association, and right to free elections guaranteed by the Convention. However, political parties cannot be left completely unregulated. There must be some rules in order to prevent them from becoming involved in terrorism and political corruption. A balance must be struck according to the Convention. There is a significant difference between the UK and Turkey regarding the treatment of political parties. Political parties in the UK have always been regarded as purely private organisations and left unregulated. However, due to rising public concerns about political corruption, the current government has taken the initiative to regulate funding and party emblems and names. Even with these changes, the UK still preserves its liberal approach to political parties, and the state does not interfere with the substantive aims and activities of political parties. In contrast with the UK, political parties in Turkey have been strictly regulated in terms of their organisation, aim and activities. The statist nature of Turkish democracy has left no space for political parties to represent private interests and implement their party policies when they are in government. They are not trusted by the state elite (civil and military bureaucracy), and therefore they have been restricted by Turkish law to protect state's interest against individuals' interests. If Turkey wants to join to the EU, she must change her law according to the principles set out by the EU and particularly by the Convention. Changing the law which regulates political parties might be a good start to achieve a fully working liberal democracy. iii CONTENTS Table of Contents Page Acknowledgement i Abstract ii Contents iii Chapter One: Introduction 1.1. Aims of Thesis 1 1.2. General Points 3 1.3. Hypotheses of Thesis 5 1.4. Contribution of the Thesis 6 1.5. Methodology of the Thesis 7 1.6. Chapter Outline 7 Chapter 2: Democracy and Political Parties 2.1. Introduction 9 2.2. Democracy 9 2.2.1. Models of Democracy 10 2.2.2. Direct Democracy 11 2.2.3. An Overlap between Direct and Indirect Democracies: 15 Referendum and Initiatives 2.2.4. Representative Democracy 20 2.2.4.1. The Critics of Referendum in Representative Democracy 22 2.2.4.2. Arguments against Representative Democracy 23 2.2.5. Economic and Social Democracy 25 2.2.6. Liberal Democracy 29 2.2.7. The Conditions of Liberal Democracy 35 2.3. Political Parties 37 2.3.1 The Concept of Political Parties 38 2.3.2. Party Organisation 42 2.3.3. Parties and Interest Groups 43 2.3.4. The Emergence of Political Parties and Party Systems 47 2.3.4.1. Institutional Theories 47 2.3.4.2. Historical Crisis Situations Theories 50 2.3.4.3. Modernisation Theories 51 2.3.5. The Functions of Political Parties 52 2.3.5.1. Identification of Goals 52 2.3.5.2. Articulation and Aggregation of Social Interest 53 2.3.5.3. Mobilisation and Socialisation of the General Public within 53 the System 2.3.5.4. Elite Recruitment 54 2.3.4.5. Structuring the Vote 54 2.3.4.6. The Organisation of Government and the Formation of Policy 55 2.4. Conclusion 57 iv Chapter 3: Political Rights and Political Parties under the European Convention of Human Rights 3.1. Introduction 60 3.2. Freedom of Expression 62 3.2.1. Theoretical Basis of Freedom of Expression 63 3.2.2. The Scope of Article 10 65 3.2.2.1. Political Expression 65 3.2.2.2. Limits on Political Expression 69 3.2.2.3. Election Expenditure and the Right to Freedom of Expression 81 3.3. Freedom of Assembly and Association 82 3.3.1.Freedom of Peaceful Assembly 83 3.3.2. Freedom of Association 85 3.3.2.1. The United Communist Party Case 87 3.3.2.2. The Socialist Party (SP) Case 92 3.3.2.3. The Freedom and Democracy Party (OZDEP) Case 94 3.3.2.4. Summary of the Cases of Turkish Political Parties 95 3.3.3. The Implications of the European Court's Judgements upon the 96 Abolition of Political Parties in Turkey 3.3.4. Restriction on Activities Subversive of Convention Rights by 100 Article 17 3.4 Free Elections 103 3.4.1. Article 3 of the First Protocol 104 3.4.1.1. Background of Article 3 of the First Protocol 104 3.4.1.2. The Scope of Article 3 of the First Protocol 105 3.4.2. The Details of Free Elections 109 3.4.2.1. Free Elections 109 3.4.2.2. Secret Ballot 110 3.4.2.3. Equal Vote 110 3.4.2.4. General Vote and Eligibility to Vote and Stand in Elections 111 3.4.3. Electoral Systems 113 3.4.4. Analysis 115 3.5. Conclusion 115 Chapter 4: The Role of Political Parties in Turkey 4.1. Introduction 117 4.2 Historical Background of Turkish Political System 120 4.2.1. The Ottoman Era 120 4.2.2. The Republican Era 122 4.2.2.1 The Rule of Ataturk (1923-1938 123 4.2.2.2. After Ataturk: Single Party Ruling (1938-1946 124 4.2.2.3. Multi-Party System 125 4.2.2.4. First Military Intervention (1960-1962) 127 4.2.2.5. Politicisation and Polarisation (1970s) 131 4.2.2.6. The Coup d'etat, the 1980s as the New Era 132 4.3. The Developments of Turkish Political Party System 133 4.3.1. The Republican People's Party 134 4.3.2. The Democrat Party, 1946-1960 137 4.3.3. The Justice Party 140 4.3.4. The Nationalist Action Party (NAP) 144 4.3.5. The National Order Party (NOP) and The National Salvation Party, 147 4.4. Main Political Parties Established after 1980 148 4.4.1. The Welfare Party (WP) and the Virtue Party (VP) 149 4.4.2. The Motherland Party (MP) 153 4.4.3. The True Path Party (TPP) 156 4.4.4. Democratic Left Party 157 4.4.5. Pro-Kurdish Parties 158 4.5. Conclusion 167 Chapter 5: Legal Status of Political Parties in Turkey 5.1. Introduction 172 5.2. Organisations, Membership and Finance of Turkish Political Parties 177 5.2.1.Establishing a Political Party 178 5.2.2. Party Membership 178 5.2.3. Party Associations and Central Organisations 182 5.2.4. Democracy in Party Organisations 185 5.2.5. Selection of Parliamentary Candidates 185 5.2.6. The Finance of Political Parties 187 5.2.7. State Aid for Political Parties 191 5.3. Aims and Activities of Turkish Political Parties 194 5.3.1. Indivisible Integrity of the State with its Territory and Nation 195 5.3.2 Principle of Democratic and Secular Republic 197 5.3.3. Prohibition of the Domination of Social Classes 203 5.4. The Abolition of Political Parties 204 5.4.1. The Reasons for Abolition in the Section 4 of the Political Parties 204 Law 1983 5.4.2. Being A Centre of Illegal Political Activities 207 5.4.3.0ther Reasons for Abolition 207 5.4.4. The Situation of the Members of an Abolished Political Party 209 5.5. Conclusion 211 Chapter 6: The Role of Political Parties in the UK 6.1.
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