ABSTRACT
With the end of the unsuccessful experiment in indirect military government of 1971–3, Turkey returned to the daunting task of establishing a democratic civilian alternative. Unfortunately, none of the problems which parliamentary democracy had encountered in the late 1960s turned out to have been solved. In the two general elections held in 1973 and 1977, no party succeeded in winning an absolute majority in the National Assembly. As a result, Turkey was left in the hands of a series of weak coalition governments which were dependent on the fickle loyalties of the minor parties. Between 1973 and 1980 there were no less than ten successive governments, and long periods (amounting in all to some nine and a half months) when there was no government with majority support in parliament.
