scholarly journals Keeping power through opposition: party system change in Turkey

2020 ◽  
Vol 62 ◽  
pp. 27-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Düzgün Arslantaş ◽  
Şenol Arslantaş
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Party System ◽  
Military Intervention ◽  
System Change ◽  
Spatial Distance ◽  
Party Government ◽  
Opposition Party ◽  
Public Opinion Surveys ◽  
Opposition Parties

AbstractThis paper re-evaluates the party system change in Turkey based on Sartori’s framework. It also explores the role of opposition parties in this. The paper suggests that, while a fragmented opposition may lead to the emergence of a one-party government and/or military intervention because of the high levels of polarization it induces, bilateral opposition prolongs one-party governments. The paper relies on an analysis of party programs and public opinion surveys in order to position the parties in terms of spatial distance and to understand the level of polarization.

scholarly journals Abrupt and Gradual Realignments: The Case of Costa Rica, 1958–2018

2020 ◽  
pp. 1866802X2096773
Author(s):  
Lucas Perelló ◽  
Patricio Navia
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Costa Rica ◽  
Party System ◽  
System Change ◽  
Election Cycle ◽  
Public Opinion Surveys ◽  
Election Cycles

Studies on party system change in Latin America commonly label similar processes as constituting dealignment or realignment. To clarify the boundaries between both concepts, we distinguish between abrupt and gradual realignments. While both imply change, they differ in the number of election cycles involved. Abrupt realignments occur in a single election cycle, while gradual realignments take place in two or more. We apply this conceptualisation to Costa Rica, Latin America’s longest-running democracy, and a country where the party system has decayed without collapsing. To better identify the type of change that has taken place, we use canton-level election data from 1958 to 2018 and public opinion surveys from 1978 to 2018. The evidence contests the notion of electoral dealignment. Instead, we show that the party system experienced an abrupt realignment in the 2002 election and gradual realignment in more recent election cycles.

Minderheitsregierung im Bund? Lehren zum Oppositionsverhalten aus Schweden

2021 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 141-158
Author(s):  
Melanie Müller ◽  
Marcus Höreth
Keyword(s):  
Party System ◽  
Legislative Process ◽  
Opposition Party ◽  
Minority Government ◽  
Adequate Understanding ◽  
Alternative Function ◽  
The Government ◽  
German Bundestag ◽  
Western Democracies ◽  
Opposition Parties

Government stability in the German Bundestag is traditionally tied to a parliamentary majority and an opposition minority . Nonetheless, minority governments in other Western democracies show that, despite the lack of a parliamentary majority, they govern stable and effectively together with the opposition . In this article, on the Swedish case, we examine how opposition parties in parliament are involved in the legislative process in a minority government and what patterns they follow in order to maintain governmental stability without neglecting their alternative function . The paper combines theoretical and concep­tual considerations on the adequate understanding of the opposition in the Federal Repub­lic of Germany with empirical findings on cooperation and conflicts between opposition party groups and minority governments . The results show that opposition parties strategi­cally switch between confrontational (Westminster-style) and consensual patterns of behav­ior (republican) . Through this flexible majority finding, opposition parties in parliament can alternately present themselves as policymakers or as an alternative counterpart to the government . This opposition behavior is functionally adequate under the conditions of a pluralized and fragmented party system and the resulting difficulties in forming a stable government majority .

Electoral Competition and the New Party System in Mexico

2005 ◽  
Vol 47 (02) ◽  
pp. 103-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph L. Klesner
Keyword(s):  
Party System ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Electoral Competition ◽  
Party Systems ◽  
The South ◽  
Opposition Party ◽  
The North ◽  
Social Bases ◽  
Ideological Differences ◽  
Opposition Parties

Abstract Mexico's former opposition parties had specific social bases that would not, on their own, have catapulted either opposition party into power. In the 1990s, specific regional bases of support developed for the parties, reflecting their efforts to develop their organizations more locally. Nationally, this led to the emergence of two parallel two-party systems, PAN-PRI competition in the north and center-west and PRD-PRI competition in the south. In parallel, a proregime-antiregime cleavage came to dominate the Mexican party system, which, combined with local-level opposition efforts to oust the PRI, created new incentives for the opposition parties to abandon past emphases on ideological differences and to act like catch-all parties instead. The regime cleavage fostered the dealignment of the Mexican electorate, a process that promoted the development of catch-all parties. Movement within the parties to behave like catch-all parties has not come without internal tensions, but electoral dynamics prove powerful inducements to catch-all behavior.

FRAGILE HEGEMONY, FLEXIBLE AUTHORITARIANISM, AND GOVERNING FROM BELOW: POLITICIANS' REPORTS IN EARLY REPUBLICAN TURKEY

2011 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 699-719 ◽  
Author(s):  
Murat Metinsoy
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Social Engineering ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Party Government ◽  
The People ◽  
State And Society ◽  
Early Republican ◽  
Turkish State

AbstractThis article scrutinizes election district and inspection district reports written by the deputies of the Turkish single-party government and the role of these reports in state decision making. Underscoring social discontent and the fragile hegemony of the new regime—both of which motivated the republican elite to monitor state and party administrations and public opinion—the article argues that the practice of reporting was neither a project of social engineering nor a practice peculiar to the Turkish state but rather a requirement of a polity concerned with the opinion of its citizens. In the absence of direct political participation of the people in government, the reports mediated between the state and society. Contrary to conventional accounts of the single-party period, the article argues that the republican elite did not govern the country through top-down decrees but instead sought to ascertain public opinion and its own administrative defects so as to consolidate its fragile hegemony. Based on these findings, I propose that we redefine the early republican state as a flexible authoritarian regime that was not detached from the society.

scholarly journals La Creation de L’image des Cultures Non-Occidentales

Afrika Focus ◽  
1988 ◽  
Vol 4 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 89-100
Author(s):  
Antoon de Baets
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Mutual Influence ◽  
History Textbooks ◽  
Cultural Relativism ◽  
Validity And Reliability ◽  
The Public ◽  
Cultural Images ◽  
Public Opinion Surveys ◽  
The Third World

Images of Non-Western Cultures. The influence of history textbooks on public opinion in Dutch-speaking Belgium 1945-1984. This Ph.D. study tries to answer the question “Do history textbooks have an impact on people’s ideas about other cultures?”, by comparing the contents of a large sample of influential history textbooks and curricula (covering 1945-1984) with the results of a wide array of public opinion surveys about the Third World and immigrants (covering 1949-1987). The theoretical part reviews ethnocentrism, cultural relativism and racism as dimensions of cultural images, focuses attention on the phenomenon and mechanism of influence, and assesses the place of the textbook in the complex network of factors acting upon youngsters and adults, inside and outside the school. The methodological part discusses the value of the two sources (relevance, validity and reliability of surveys; availability and use of history textbooks; comparability of both). Universes of both sources are constructed and samples drawn from them. These samples are analysed with mutually attuned question batteries. The double empirical analysis leads to two series of conclusions and trends that are compared with each other. Five parallel trends are found in textbooks and surveys (dominant but decreasing ethnocentrism; decreasing nationalism; absence of racism; poor awareness of other cultures; social-evolutionist thinking). They coincide in time, while, for textbooks to have influence, trends there should precede these in the public. Four other trends only partially coincide, or diverge. In the case of still two other trends, mutual influence could be plausibly postulated. In globo, no firm evidence was found for the thesis that history textbooks autonomously influence the public. It rather is the general climate of opinion that, with years of delay, acts upon the textbook authors. The role of these authors, the immediate influences upon them (editors, curricula planners, academics, inspectors, teachers, parents and pupils), their biographies and their degree of representativeness vis-à-vis public opinion, are largely discussed. As a conclusion, the study argues that, by presenting cultural diversity more accurately, new history textbooks could become master cards in the construction of open and tolerant intercultural views and mentalities.

scholarly journals Images of Non-Western Cultures. The influence of history textbooks on public opinion in Dutch-speaking Belgium 1945- 1984.

Afrika Focus ◽  
1988 ◽  
Vol 4 (3-4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Antoon De Baets
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Mutual Influence ◽  
History Textbooks ◽  
Cultural Relativism ◽  
Validity And Reliability ◽  
The Public ◽  
Cultural Images ◽  
Public Opinion Surveys ◽  
The Third World

 The This Ph.D. study tries to answer the question "Do history textbooks have an impact on people's ideas about other cultures?", by comparing the contents of a large sample of in- fluential history textbooks and curricula (covering 1945- 1984) with the results of a wide array of public opinion surveys about the Third World and immigrants (covering 1949- 1987). The theoretical part reviews ethnocentrism, cultural relativism and racism as dimensions of cultural images, focuses attention on the phenomenon and mechanism of influence, and assesses the place of the textbook in the complex network of factors acting upon youngsters and adults, inside and outside the school.The methodological part discusses the value of the two sources (relevance, validity and reliability of surveys; availability and use of history textbooks; comparability of both). Univer- ses of both sources are constructed and samples drawn from them. These samples are analysed with mutually attuned question batteries. The double empirical analysis leads to two series of conclusions and trends that are compared with each other. Five parallel trends are found in textbooks and surveys (dominant but decreasing ethnocentrism; decreasing nationalism; absence of racism; poor awareness of other cultures; social-evolutionist thinking). They coincide in time, while, for textbooks to have influence, trends there should precede these in the public. Four other trends only partially coincide, or diverge. In the case of still two other trends, mutual influence could be plausibly postulated.In globo, no firm evidence was found for the thesis that history textbooks autonomously influence the public. It rather is the general climate of opinion that, with years of delay, acts upon the textbook authors. The role of these authors, the immediate influences upon them (editors, curricula planners, academics, inspectors, teachers, parents and pupils), their biographies and their degree of representativeness vis-à-vis public opinion, are largely discussed. As a conclusion, the study argues that, by presenting cultural diversity more accurately, new history textbooks could become master cards in the construction of open and tolerant inter- cultural views and mentalities. KEYWORDS : ethnocentrism, mentalities, surveys 

Political Culture and Values

2019 ◽  
pp. 27-47
Author(s):  
Russell J. Dalton
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
The United States ◽  
Role Of Government ◽  
Good Citizenship ◽  
Public Opinion Surveys ◽  
Industrial Democracies ◽  
New Evidence ◽  
Public Opinion Polls ◽  
Opinion Polls

A long intellectual tradition links the different historical experiences in Canada and the United States (U.S.) to continuing contrasts in their political cultures. New evidence from contemporary public opinion polls highlights more cultural similarities between nations than differences. In broad value priorities, Canadians and Americans are more similar to each other than to the citizens in most other advanced industrial democracies. Feelings of national identity and trust in government are also strikingly similar across these two nations. The norms of good citizenship are very comparable. And perhaps most surprising of all, images of the appropriate role of government overlap substantially. In short, the rhetoric of cultural differences is less apparent in the reality of public opinion surveys.

Political Parties

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angus Hawkins
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Party System ◽  
Local Level ◽  
British Politics ◽  
Party Government ◽  
Parliamentary Government ◽  
Late Eighteenth Century ◽  
Late Eighteenth

This chapter examines the emergence, roles, and meanings of ‘party’ within British politics from the late eighteenth century to the present day. It traces the transition from ‘mixed’ government to ‘parliamentary’ government and ultimately to ‘party’ government. The altered function and nature of political parties within these shifting constitutional contexts is assessed. How parties functioned at the parliamentary and local level is also explored. It moves on to consider how historians have approached different aspects of party activity—their organization of the contest for power in Parliament; specific party histories; embodiments of ideology; how parties have organized themselves; winning elections—and evaluates the role of the idea of a ‘two-party system’ within British politics and historiography as the ‘natural’ alignment of party activity.

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