ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the role played by political parties in contemporary Turkey, viewed through the main debates and approaches to parties and politics and an understanding of relations between people and the state. Parties are routinely said to be at the core of political life in Turkey, and have been studied mainly through institutional and macro approaches. Most research has examined the party system as a whole, or focused on the parties’ contribution to democracy, party ideology, and electoral dynamics. More recently, however, studies have emerged with a more sociological slant, examining the local and social anchoring of parties and their internal organization and workings. Drawing on these recent works, this chapter focuses on the role of parties as channels and mediators between state and society. It adopts a historical perspective on the changing relationships between parties, state, and society in Turkey, looking in particular at how periods of unstable coalition governments have alternated with those when a dominant party is in office. In this light, it questions the specificity of the rule of the Justice and Development Party.
