ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a novel conceptualisation of party system institutionalisation as a separate phenomenon from party institutionalisation and discusses its effects on democratic consolidation. It argues that the party system in Turkey suffers from a lack of institutionalisation. The chapter also discusses the relationship between party systems and democratic consolidation before considering the conceptualisation of party system institutionalisation. It refers to democratic consolidation as stabilising and maintaining the democratic credentials of the political regime in Turkey. For instance, defining secularism is still a major issue in France while the status of Northern Ireland is an element of controversy among UK political parties. In the program of the Republican People's Party, secularism is defined as the separation of religion and state, and considered the guarantor of freedom of religion and consciousness. The problematic relationship between political parties and the regime in Turkey mainly results from the salience of socio-cultural cleavages in the country, which is unsurprisingly translated into the left–right dimension.
