DOCSLIB.ORG

Neo-Pan-Islamism in Turkey: Foreign Policy Discourse of Turkey’S Islamist Thinkers and Parties (1970S-1990S)

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Neo-Pan-Islamism in Turkey: Foreign Policy Discourse of Turkey’S Islamist Thinkers and Parties (1970S-1990S) Ph.D. program in “Political Theory, Political Science and Political History” XXX Cycle: 2014-2017 Neo-Pan-Islamism in Turkey: foreign policy discourse of Turkey’s Islamist thinkers and parties (1970s-1990s) PhD Candidate: Alessio Calabrò Supervisor: prof. Francesca Corrao 1 Neo-Pan-Islamism in Turkey: foreign policy discourse of Turkey’s Islamist thinkers and parties (1970s-1990s) Contents Abbreviations ................................................................................................ 4 Introduction .................................................................................................. 5 Concepts and typologies for a research on Turkish Islamist Parties and their foreign policy ambitions .................................................................... 19 Defining concepts ..................................................................................... 20 The concepts of political party, movement and opportunity space .......... 25 The concept of foreign policy ................................................................... 29 The concept of Islamism ........................................................................... 33 A categorization of Turkey’s Islamist parties ........................................... 36 A brief history of Turkish Islamism: main thinkers and organizations 45 Islamism in the Late Ottoman Empire and in the Early Republic of Turkey .................................................................................................................. 46 Islamism in multi-party Republic of Turkey ............................................ 64 The political role of the Naqshbandi Sufi order from the Ottoman Empire to the Republican Era ................................................................... 70 Mehmet Zahid Kotku, Esad Coşan and the İskenderpaşa Cemaati: links with the NOM and Pan-Islamist visions ................................................... 83 Said Nursi’s anti-communist Islamic Union ........................................... 108 The relevance of religious brotherhoods for the development of Turkish neo-Pan-Islamism ................................................................................... 119 International affairs discourse of key Islamist authors in Republican Turkey ........................................................................................................ 122 Pan-Islamist discourse in late Ottoman and early Republican context ... 125 The reemergence of Pan-Islamism in Cold War Turkey ........................ 141 Necip Fazıl Kısakürek: a Turkish leadership of a united Muslim world 148 2 Sezai Karakoç: the clash between the Islamic and the Western civilization ................................................................................................................ 163 Salih Özcan: Islamist writer, publisher, and “Nursi’s foreign minister” 174 Abdurrahman Dilipak and Dış Politika: Pan-Islamist ideas at the end of the Cold War era ..................................................................................... 191 The Islamist discourse on foreign affairs in Turkey’s Islamist magazines .................................................................................................................... 201 Continuity and change in Turkey’s Islamist discourse: a history of the NOM through its parties’ electoral campaigns (1973-1999) ................. 246 The National Outlook from the MNP to the FP...................................... 248 The MSP and the 1973 campaign ........................................................... 251 The MSP and the 1977 campaign ........................................................... 258 The RP and the 1991 campaign .............................................................. 262 The RP and the 1995 campaign .............................................................. 267 The FP and the 1999 campaign .............................................................. 272 A shift from a long continuity ................................................................ 276 Elements of neo-Pan-Islamist foreign policy discourse in the NOM’s political parties (1970s-1990s) .................................................................. 279 Foreign policy views of Necmettin Erbakan .......................................... 280 Foreign policy views of the NOM parties through parliamentary debates ................................................................................................................ 294 Conclusions ................................................................................................ 323 Bibliography .............................................................................................. 327 Islamist magazines .................................................................................. 341 Daily newspapers .................................................................................... 342 3 Abbreviations AKP: Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, Justice and Development Party ANAP: Anavatan Partisi, Motherland Party CHP: Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi, Republican People’s Party D-8: Developing 8 DYP: Doğru Yol Partisi, True Path Party FP: Fazilet Partisi, Virtue Party JI: Jamaat-e Islami, Islamic Society (Islamist movement, Pakistan/Bangladesh) MB: Muslim Brothers MHP: Milliyetçi Hareket Partisi, Nationalist Movement Party MMTD: Millet Meclisi Tutanak Dergisi, National Assembly’s Journal of Minutes, TGNA Archive MNP: Milli Nizam Partisi, National Order Party MSP: Milli Selamet Partisi, National Salvation Party MTB: Müslüman Topluluklar Birliği, Union of Muslim Communities (congress) MWL: Muslim World League NOM: National Outlook Movement (Milli Görüş Hareketi) RP: Refah Partisi, Welfare Party SP: Saadet Partisi, Felicity Party TBMM/TGNA: Türkiye Büyük Millet Meclisi/Turkish Grand National Assembly WMC: World Muslim Congress 4 Introduction As one approaches the study of Turkish Foreign policy under the rule of Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi (AKP, Justice and Development Party), the concept of Neo-Ottomanism is frequently central to the discussion. Even if one has additionally pointed out the nationalist features of AKP’s Neo-Ottomanism,1 the latter can be generically defined as a label for a multi-dimensional approach to foreign relations through the utilization of Turkey’s soft power based on historical, geographic and cultural connections dating back to the Ottoman era. Embracing Neo-Ottomanism implies a rejection of the idea of Turkey as merely “a bridge between East and West”, an unassertive actor, valued only from the point of view of its relations with the West. Turkey’s former Prime Minister Turgut Özal was the first ruling figure in contemporary Turkey to be considered a promoter of a “Neo- Ottomanist” foreign policy. Two decades later, AKP’s foreign policy was labeled the same way after its theoretical structuring within Ahmet Davutoğlu’s Strategic Depth. Professor Davutoğlu, a former International Relations scholar, Turkey’s former Foreign Minister and Prime Minister, is considered to have been the intellectual architect of the AKP’s foreign policy even before his appointment as minister. Davutoğlu’s Strategic Depth concept can be described as soft power that should be exerted by Turkey in the international arena, and on its neighbors in particular, in the light of the country’s historical and geographical heritage. However, the so-called Neo-Ottomanism has not been sufficiently studied in relation to the stances of the 20th century’s 1 Taşpınar, “The three strategic visions of Turkey”. 5 Islamic movements, parties and intellectuals that certainly influenced Turkish political scene, also by generating the heterogeneous series of pro-Islamic parties from MNP to today’s AKP and Saadet Partisi. In fact, there have been different kinds of Neo-Ottomanism in the history of Turkish foreign policy, and this generic “instinct” of assertiveness and multidimensionality has characterized political personalities and projects diversely situated in Turkey’s political spectrum, from right (Özal) to left (İsmail Cem).2 For this reason, one should rather focus on the differences between this different approaches to the idea of a “more independent” and multidimensional (or multi-directional) Turkey as an international actor. Someone has outlined the connection between Davutoğlu’s doctrine and Pan-Islamism, therefore indicating a more specific origin and nature of the former FM and PM’s “Neo- Ottomanism”.3 The background issue that the present research helps to clarify is the continuity among the Turkish Islamic movements of the second half of the 20th century, as this is also useful to explain the evolution towards today’s Turkish Islamic-based political parties. The core of this research, however, is a study of the specific sphere of foreign policy discourse though a study of these parties’ ideology and discourse. I explore this discourse through research on those movements and parties that appeared on the Turkish political scene approximately in the 1970s- 1990s period, by analyzing in particular their views on foreign affairs. Nevertheless, I focus my research on political parties, rather than on movements. Specifically, the conclusive aim of this research is the analysis of the stances of the main Turkish Islamist parties in relation to foreign policy. The possible evolution or continuity of these stances 2 Altunışık, “Worldviews and Turkish foreign policy in the Middle East” 3 Özkan, “Turkey, Davutoğlu and the idea of pan-Islamism”. 6 is to be explored
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Unicameralism in Denmark: Abolition of the Senate, Current Functioning
    16 Unicameralism in Denmark Abolition of the Senate, current functioning and debate Asbjørn Skjæveland Introduction The Danish Senate, the Landsting, not only experienced a crisis but was also abolished. This paper investigates the abolition of the Landsting and the introduc­ tion of unicameralism (Arter 1991; Eigaard 1993; Thorsen s.d.). Furthermore, it investigates how well Danish unicameral democracy is working, and it pre­ sents the current low-intensity debate on the possible introduction of an additional chamber. This chapter shows that while redundancy, which is due in part to the development of the composition of the Landsting, did play a role in its abolition, so did party tactics and even the entanglement with the matters of voting age and royal succession. Thus, the full explanation for the introduction of unicameralism cannot be found in the category of rational, national-level explanations. Yet Dan­ ish democracy is doing fine. Danish voters are satisfied and the overall diagnoses of political scientists are generally positive. Clearly, not all democracies need a senate to do well. Only rarely is a new senate proposed as a solution to problems identified by observers and actors. Per Stig Møller (former minister and MP for the conservatives [Det Konservative Folkeparti]) is an exception to the rule. He suggests that it would be a good idea to reintroduce something resembling the Landsting (Møller & Jensen 2010). Still, Danish democracy is not perfect, and in a recent book it has been suggested that it could be improved by introducing an additional chamber elected by lottery (Mulvad, Larsen & Ellersgaard 2017) to improve the descriptive representation of the Danish Parliament, since the new chamber would mirror the composition of the Danish voters in terms of descrip­ tors, such as gender and education.
    [Show full text]
  • Chapter 3: an Overview of Swedish Constitutional History
    Perfecting Parliament Succession, and the Riksdag Acts). It is this portion--the written constitution--that defines the electoral system, specifies the organization of parliament, the relation of the king to parliament, and characterizes many of the constraints that define the limits of governmental activities. These written rules directly shape the broad outlines of Swedish governance, and most clearly characterize the general manner in which the preferences of Swedish citizens are used to determine which specific public policies are put in place. It bears noting, this usage of the term constitution differs somewhat from that used by some Swedish scholars. The term constitution, as used here, refers to the fundamental procedures and constraints faced by Swedish government, rather then the subset of relevant legal documents which claim constitutional status, per se. By the usage adopted here, the Swedish state may be said to have operated under four different constitutions: one written in 1809, one that emerged from amendment in 1866, one that emerged from amendment and additional structural and electoral reform in 1920, and one that was adopted by major structural reforms in 1970. That is to say, the result of major reforms of fundamental procedures and constraints is regarded as creating a new constitution. (There were only two Instruments of Government during the period of interest, those of 1809 and 1975, but there have been four substantially different procedures for making new laws.) This convention is faithful to the discussion above, and simplifies the description of major reforms. The result of the major reforms of the Riksdag adopted in 1866 and in 1909-20 period will be referred to as the Constitution of 1866 and Constitution of 1920, rather than some less descriptive and more cumbersome phrase.
    [Show full text]
  • Unicameralism and the Indiana Constitutional Convention of 1850 Val Nolan, Jr.*
    DOCUMENT UNICAMERALISM AND THE INDIANA CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION OF 1850 VAL NOLAN, JR.* Bicameralism as a principle of legislative structure was given "casual, un- questioning acceptance" in the state constitutions adopted in the nineteenth century, states Willard Hurst in his recent study of main trends in the insti- tutional development of American law.1 Occasioning only mild and sporadic interest in the states in the post-Revolutionary period,2 problems of legislative * A.B. 1941, Indiana University; J.D. 1949; Assistant Professor of Law, Indiana Uni- versity School of Law. 1. HURST, THE GROWTH OF AMERICAN LAW, THE LAW MAKERS 88 (1950). "O 1ur two-chambered legislatures . were adopted mainly by default." Id. at 140. During this same period and by 1840 many city councils, unicameral in colonial days, became bicameral, the result of easy analogy to state governmental forms. The trend was reversed, and since 1900 most cities have come to use one chamber. MACDONALD, AmER- ICAN CITY GOVERNMENT AND ADMINISTRATION 49, 58, 169 (4th ed. 1946); MUNRO, MUNICIPAL GOVERN-MENT AND ADMINISTRATION C. XVIII (1930). 2. "[T]he [American] political theory of a second chamber was first formulated in the constitutional convention held in Philadelphia in 1787 and more systematically developed later in the Federalist." Carroll, The Background of Unicameralisnl and Bicameralism, in UNICAMERAL LEGISLATURES, THE ELEVENTH ANNUAL DEBATE HAND- BOOK, 1937-38, 42 (Aly ed. 1938). The legislature of the confederation was unicameral. ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION, V. Early American proponents of a bicameral legislature founded their arguments on theoretical grounds. Some, like John Adams, advocated a second state legislative house to represent property and wealth.
    [Show full text]
  • Planting Parliaments in Eurasia, 1850–1950
    Planting Parliaments in Eurasia, 1850–1950 Parliaments are often seen as Western European and North American institutions and their establishment in other parts of the world as a derivative and mostly defec- tive process. This book challenges such Eurocentric visions by retracing the evo- lution of modern institutions of collective decision-making in Eurasia. Breaching the divide between different area studies, the book provides nine case studies cov- ering the area between the eastern edge of Asia and Eastern Europe, including the former Russian, Ottoman, Qing, and Japanese Empires as well as their succes- sor states. In particular, it explores the appeals to concepts of parliamentarism, deliberative decision-making, and constitutionalism; historical practices related to parliamentarism; and political mythologies across Eurasia. It focuses on the historical and “reestablished” institutions of decision-making, which consciously hark back to indigenous traditions and adapt them to the changing circumstances in imperial and postimperial contexts. Thereby, the book explains how represent- ative institutions were needed for the establishment of modernized empires or postimperial states but at the same time offered a connection to the past. Ivan Sablin is a research group leader in the Department of History at Heidelberg University, Germany. Egas Moniz Bandeira is a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory, Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Routledge Studies in the Modern History of Asia 152. Caste in Early Modern Japan Danzaemon and the Edo Outcaste Order Timothy D. Amos 153. Performing the Politics of Translation in Modern Japan Staging the Resistance Aragorn Quinn 154. Malaysia and the Cold War Era Edited by Ooi Keat Gin 155.
    [Show full text]
  • Who's Who in Politics in Turkey
    WHO’S WHO IN POLITICS IN TURKEY Sarıdemir Mah. Ragıp Gümüşpala Cad. No: 10 34134 Eminönü/İstanbul Tel: (0212) 522 02 02 - Faks: (0212) 513 54 00 www.tarihvakfi.org.tr - [email protected] © Tarih Vakfı Yayınları, 2019 WHO’S WHO IN POLITICS IN TURKEY PROJECT Project Coordinators İsmet Akça, Barış Alp Özden Editors İsmet Akça, Barış Alp Özden Authors Süreyya Algül, Aslı Aydemir, Gökhan Demir, Ali Yalçın Göymen, Erhan Keleşoğlu, Canan Özbey, Baran Alp Uncu Translation Bilge Güler Proofreading in English Mark David Wyers Book Design Aşkın Yücel Seçkin Cover Design Aşkın Yücel Seçkin Printing Yıkılmazlar Basın Yayın Prom. ve Kağıt San. Tic. Ltd. Şti. Evren Mahallesi, Gülbahar Cd. 62/C, 34212 Bağcılar/İstanbull Tel: (0212) 630 64 73 Registered Publisher: 12102 Registered Printer: 11965 First Edition: İstanbul, 2019 ISBN Who’s Who in Politics in Turkey Project has been carried out with the coordination by the History Foundation and the contribution of Heinrich Böll Foundation Turkey Representation. WHO’S WHO IN POLITICS IN TURKEY —EDITORS İSMET AKÇA - BARIŞ ALP ÖZDEN AUTHORS SÜREYYA ALGÜL - ASLI AYDEMİR - GÖKHAN DEMİR ALİ YALÇIN GÖYMEN - ERHAN KELEŞOĞLU CANAN ÖZBEY - BARAN ALP UNCU TARİH VAKFI YAYINLARI Table of Contents i Foreword 1 Abdi İpekçi 3 Abdülkadir Aksu 6 Abdullah Çatlı 8 Abdullah Gül 11 Abdullah Öcalan 14 Abdüllatif Şener 16 Adnan Menderes 19 Ahmet Altan 21 Ahmet Davutoğlu 24 Ahmet Necdet Sezer 26 Ahmet Şık 28 Ahmet Taner Kışlalı 30 Ahmet Türk 32 Akın Birdal 34 Alaattin Çakıcı 36 Ali Babacan 38 Alparslan Türkeş 41 Arzu Çerkezoğlu
    [Show full text]
  • TRANSFORMATION of POLITICAL ISLAM in TURKEY Islamist Welfare Party’S Pro-EU Turn
    PARTY POLITICS VOL 9. No.4 pp. 463–483 Copyright © 2003 SAGE Publications London Thousand Oaks New Delhi www.sagepublications.com TRANSFORMATION OF POLITICAL ISLAM IN TURKEY Islamist Welfare Party’s Pro-EU Turn Saban Taniyici ABSTRACT The recent changes in the Islamist party’s ideology and policies in Turkey are analysed in this article. The Islamist Welfare Party (WP) was ousted from power in June 1997 and was outlawed by the Consti- tutional Court (CC) in March 1998. After the ban, the WP elite founded the Virtue Party and changed policies on a number of issues. They emphasized democracy and basic human rights and freedoms in the face of this external shock. The WP’s hostile policy toward the European Union (EU) was changed. This process of change is discussed and it is argued that the EU norms presented a political opportunity structure for the party elites to influence the change of direction of the party. When the VP was banned by the CC in June 2001, the VP elites split and founded two parties which differ on a number of issues but have positive policies toward the EU. KEY WORDS European Union party change political Islam political oppor- tunity structure Turkey Introduction The Islamist Welfare Party (WP) in Turkey recently changed its decades-old policy of hostility toward the European Union (EU) and began strongly to support Turkey’s accession to the Union, thereby raising doubts about the inevitability of a civilizational conflict between Islam and the West. 1 This change was part of the party’s broader image transformation which took place after its leader, Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan,2 was forced by the Turkish political establishment to resign from a coalition government in June 1997.
    [Show full text]
  • Mixed-Member Electoral Systems in Constitutional Context
    0/-*/&4637&: *ODPMMBCPSBUJPOXJUI6OHMVFJU XFIBWFTFUVQBTVSWFZ POMZUFORVFTUJPOT UP MFBSONPSFBCPVUIPXPQFOBDDFTTFCPPLTBSFEJTDPWFSFEBOEVTFE 8FSFBMMZWBMVFZPVSQBSUJDJQBUJPOQMFBTFUBLFQBSU $-*$,)&3& "OFMFDUSPOJDWFSTJPOPGUIJTCPPLJTGSFFMZBWBJMBCMF UIBOLTUP UIFTVQQPSUPGMJCSBSJFTXPSLJOHXJUI,OPXMFEHF6OMBUDIFE ,6JTBDPMMBCPSBUJWFJOJUJBUJWFEFTJHOFEUPNBLFIJHIRVBMJUZ CPPLT0QFO"DDFTTGPSUIFQVCMJDHPPE MIXED-MEMBER ELECTORAL SYSTEMS IN CONSTITUTIONAL CONTEXT TAIWAN, JAPAN, and BEYOND EDITED BY NATHAN F. BATTO, CHI HUANG, ALEXANDER C. TAN, & GARY W. COX New Comparative Politics Mixed- Member Electoral Systems in Constitutional Context Reformers have promoted mixed- member electoral systems as the “best of both worlds.” In this volume, internationally recognized political sci- entists evaluate the ways in which the introduction of a mixed-member electoral system affects the coniguration of political parties. The con- tributors examine several political phenomena, including cabinet post allocation, nominations, preelectoral coalitions, split-ticket voting, and the size of party systems and faction systems. Signiicantly, they also consider various ways in which the constitutional system— especially whether the head of government is elected directly or indirectly—can modify the incentives created by the electoral system. Part I of the book provides an in-depth comparison of Taiwan and Japan, both of which moved from single nontransferable vote systems to mixed- member majoritarian systems. These cases demonstrate that the higher the payoffs of attaining the executive ofice and the greater degree of cross-district coordination required to win it, the stronger the incentives for elites to form and stay in the major parties. In such a context, a country will move rapidly toward a two-party system. In Part II, the contributors apply this theoretical logic to other countries with mixed- member systems and ind that executive competition has the same effect on legislative electoral rules in countries as disparate as Thailand, the Philippines, New Zealand, Bolivia, and Russia.
    [Show full text]
  • The Unicameral Legislature
    Citizens Research Council of Michigan Council 810 FARWELL BUILDING -- DETROIT 26 204 BAUCH BUILDING -- LANSING 23 Comments Number 706 FORMERLY BUREAU OF GOVERNMENTAL RESEARCH February 18, 1960 THE UNICAMERAL LEGISLATURE By Charles W. Shull, Ph. D. Recurrence of the suggestion of a single-house legislature for Michigan centers attention upon the narrowness of choice in terms of the number of legislative chambers. Where representative assemblies exist today, they are either composed of two houses and are called bicameral, or they possess but a single unit and are known as unicameral. The Congress of the United States has two branches – the Senate and the House of Representatives. All but one of the present state legislatures – that of Nebraska – are bicameral. On the other hand, only a handful of municipal councils or county boards retain the two-chambered pattern. This has not always been the case. The colonial legislatures of Delaware, Georgia, and Pennsylvania were single- chambered or unicameral; Vermont came into the United States of America with a one-house lawmaking assem- bly, having largely formed her Constitution of 1777 upon the basis of that of Pennsylvania. Early city councils in America diversely copied the so-called “federal analogy” of two-chambers rather extensively in the formative days of municipal governmental institutions. The American Revolution of 1776 served as a turning point in our experimentation with state legislative struc- ture. Shortly after the Declaration of Independence, Delaware and Georgia changed from the single-chamber type of British colony days to the alternate bicameral form, leaving Pennsylvania and its imitator Vermont main- taining single-house legislatures.
    [Show full text]
  • Establishing a Lebanese Senate: Bicameralism and the Third Republic
    CDDRL Number 125 August 2012 WORKING PAPERS Establishing a Lebanese Senate: Bicameralism and the Third Republic Elias I. Muhanna Brown University Center on Democracy, Development, and The Rule of Law Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies Additional working papers appear on CDDRL’s website: http://cddrl.stanford.edu. Working Paper of the Program on Arab Reform and Democracy at CDDRL. About the Program on Arab Reform and Democracy: The Program on Arab Reform and Democracy examines the different social and political dynamics within Arab countries and the evolution of their political systems, focusing on the prospects, conditions, and possible pathways for political reform in the region. This multidisciplinary program brings together both scholars and practitioners - from the policy making, civil society, NGO (non-government organization), media, and political communities - as well as other actors of diverse backgrounds from the Arab world, to consider how democratization and more responsive and accountable governance might be achieved, as a general challenge for the region and within specific Arab countries. The program aims to be a hub for intellectual capital about issues related to good governance and political reform in the Arab world and allowing diverse opinions and voices to be heard. It benefits from the rich input of the academic community at Stanford, from faculty to researchers to graduate students, as well as its partners in the Arab world and Europe. Visit our website: arabreform.stanford.edu Center on Democracy, Development, and The Rule of Law Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies Stanford University Encina Hall Stanford, CA 94305 Phone: 650-724-7197 Fax: 650-724-2996 http://cddrl.stanford.edu/ About the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law (CDDRL) CDDRL was founded by a generous grant from the Bill and Flora Hewlett Foundation in October in 2002 as part of the Stanford Institute for International Studies at Stanford University.
    [Show full text]
  • On the Merits of Bicameral Legislatures: Policy Stability Within Partisan Polities
    On the Merits of Bicameral Legislatures: Policy Stability within Partisan Polities 12-12-02 Roger D. Congleton Center for Study of Public Choice Fairfax VA 22030 [email protected] Abstract Some “democrats” have argued that bicameral systems are undemocratic, insofar as voters in different regions or member states have disproportionate representation in one of the chambers. Others have argued that the bicameral structure is redundant insofar as elections ultimately determine the members of each chamber. This paper argues that bicameralism serves a useful constitutional purpose that is neither undemocratic nor redundant. Unbiased forms of bicameralism tend to make public policy more predictable and more, rather than less, faithful to voter preferences. Statistical evidence from the Danish parliamentary reform of 1953 and the Swedish parliamentary reform of 1970 demonstrates that bicameral legislatures tend to have more predictable public policy that better reflect long- term voter demands than unicameral legislatures in partisan polities. Key Words: Bicameral, Unicameral, Stability, Public Choice, Constitutional Analysis, Public Choice JEL Categories: D6, D7 I. Introduction: Bicameralism and Democracy This paper analyzes some neglected properties of bicameral systems of governance in which bicameralism is not used to “overweight” one group’s interests relative to others nor to bias policy making toward continuation of the status quo. The results suggest that bicameralism may improve public policy by making it more predictable and more consensual—especially in settings where policy deliberations are partisan. They demonstrate that completely representative bicameral legislatures tend to have policies that are more stable through time and more broadly supported on average than those adopted by otherwise similar unicameral legislatures, especially in settings where political parties are important.
    [Show full text]
  • Bicameralism
    Bicameralism International IDEA Constitution-Building Primer 2 Bicameralism International IDEA Constitution-Building Primer 2 Elliot Bulmer © 2017 International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA) Second edition First published in 2014 by International IDEA International IDEA publications are independent of specific national or political interests. Views expressed in this publication do not necessarily represent the views of International IDEA, its Board or its Council members. The electronic version of this publication is available under a Creative Commons Attribute-NonCommercial- ShareAlike 3.0 (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0) licence. You are free to copy, distribute and transmit the publication as well as to remix and adapt it, provided it is only for non-commercial purposes, that you appropriately attribute the publication, and that you distribute it under an identical licence. For more information on this licence visit the Creative Commons website: <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/> International IDEA Strömsborg SE–103 34 Stockholm Sweden Telephone: +46 8 698 37 00 Email: [email protected] Website: <http://www.idea.int> Cover design: International IDEA Cover illustration: © 123RF, <http://www.123rf.com> Produced using Booktype: <https://booktype.pro> ISBN: 978-91-7671-107-1 Contents 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................. 3 Advantages of bicameralism.....................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • The Case of the Turkish Religious Right
    International Journal of Business and SocialScience Vol. 4 No. 4; April 2013 Regime Opposition as a Source of Party Policy Change: The Case of the Turkish Religious Right Hakan Köni Assistant Professor of Political Science, Assistant-Chair Political Science and Public Administration, Çankırı Karatekin University Turkey Abstract The article is devoted to the examination of the role of the Turkish state elites on the change in the political line of the Turkish religious right. To do this, the article respectively analyzes the course of radicalization in the religious right, the secularist backlash it encountered, and the ensuing process of moderation to which it has been introduced. Based on an in-depth empirical analysis, it is observed that the Turkish religious right has gone through a notable process of moderation in response to successive reactions displayed by the secularist state elites. Assuming a cooperative and conciliatory attitude from the beginning, the movement has gradually abandoned its religious fundamentalist discourse and demonstrated a remarkable resolution to incorporate contemporary political norms and understandings into the core of its political agenda. Keywords: 28 February, State Elites, Secularism, Political Islam, Justice and Development Party 1. Introduction The causes of change in the political orientation of the Turkish religious right have been studied very popularly. The secularist reaction of the state elites, globalization, Europeanization and growing civil society activism are often pointed as the leading causes of the change.1This article scrutinizes the impact of the state elites among others with a detailed empirical analysis. The aspects of analysis conducted for this purpose include the examination of the radicalization of the Turkish religious right, the ensuing response by the state elites and its reception by the religious right.
    [Show full text]