ABSTRACT
This chapter is concerned with the fate of the centre-left in Turkey in the post-Cold War period. The combined vote percentage of the centre-left parties has been in decline throughout the 1990s. The overriding question is, why? As the period of decline is progressive throughout the decade of the 1990s, it will be argued that electoral discontent with the centre-left cannot be explained by short-term factors. Instead, it will be argued that the root of this malaise has two important dimensions. The first argues that the centre-left has failed to engage the specific demands of Turkish voters. Second, it will be argued that the centre-left political tradition in Turkey has deeper corporatist traditions, which prevent leftist parties from adopting a genuinely social democratic platform. In effect, centre-left parties in Turkey continue to advocate a conception of classical modernity as outlined in chapter one, without fully taking into consideration the increased polyarchical traits of Turkish society. Taken as a whole, the centre-left in Turkey is bedevilled by an insistence on formative Kemalist principles, derived from the six arrows, which are still embedded within the parties’ programs.
