Browsing by Author "Yavuzyilmaz, Hakan"

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    Competitive Yet Unfair: May 2023 Elections And Authoritarian Resilience In Turkey
    (Başkent Üniversitesi İktisadi İdari Bilimler Fakültesi, 2024-04-20) Esen, Berk; Gumuscu, Sebnem; Yavuzyilmaz, Hakan
    On May 14, Turkish voters headed to the polls to vote for presidential and parliamentary elections. This was the most challenging race yet for authoritarian populist Erdogan, as the ongoing economic crisis and deadly earthquakes severely diminished his performance legitimacy. Moreover, the opposition parties united against his regime by rallying behind a joint presidential candidate. However, Erdogan turned the tables on the opposition and won the presidential race for a third consecutive term while his electoral bloc secured a majority in the parliament. This paper analyses the context and results of Turkey's 2023 twin elections. We highlight the features of the competitive authoritarian regime, Erdogan's religio-nationalist electoral strategy, and the opposition's fragile state and weak strategy to explain Erdogan's electoral resilience.
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    Formal Yet Ineffective Opposition Coordination Under Competitive Authoritarianism: Nation Alliance In Turkey
    (THIRD WORLD QUARTERLY, 2024-12) Yavuzyilmaz, Hakan; Esen, Berk
    Pre-electoral opposition coordination is the most effective strategy to counter contemporary forms of autocratisation. While scholars have recently begun to explore the factors that lead to the formation of pre-electoral alliances in competitive authoritarian regimes, the high variation in terms of their composition and effectiveness is generally neglected in the existing scholarship. There is a lack of research on why some inter-party coalitions have limited effectiveness in the electoral arena while others nominate optimal candidates through routinised and transparent procedures and run cohesive campaigns. Through a detailed analysis of the Nation Alliance (2018-2023) in Turkey, we argue that in the context of high regime vulnerability, power asymmetry between alliance partners and a high level of leadership control over candidate nomination in opposition parties hinder the potential effectiveness of formal pre-electoral alliances.
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    Opening The Box Of Parties And Party Systems Under Autocratization: Evidence From Turkey
    (2023) Yavuzyilmaz, Hakan; Tsarouhas, Dimitris
    Party institutionalization (PI) and party system institutionalization (PSI) are critical for processes of democratization and democratic consolidation, yet their impact and relationship have not been explored under conditions of autocratization. How does autocratization relate to party and party system stability, and how does that link manifest itself? To answer those questions, we draw evidence from Turkey to demonstrate that when autocratization occurs, stabilization at the systemic level can go hand in hand with declining levels of PI. We also conceptualize the process of stabilization at the systemic level alongside unit-level de-institutionalization as a form of systemic ossification. Ossified party systems appear stable but are continuously subject to the possibility of de-stabilization, or even implosion, due to the under-institutionalization of incumbent parties. Driving factors of such (de)stabilization are: (1) the increasing unevenness of party competition and (2) increasing levels of societal and political polarization resulting from autocratization.
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    THIRD WORLD QUARTERLY
    (THIRD WORLD QUARTERLY, 2024-12) Yavuzyilmaz, Hakan; Esen, Berk
    Pre-electoral opposition coordination is the most effective strategy to counter contemporary forms of autocratisation. While scholars have recently begun to explore the factors that lead to the formation of pre-electoral alliances in competitive authoritarian regimes, the high variation in terms of their composition and effectiveness is generally neglected in the existing scholarship. There is a lack of research on why some inter-party coalitions have limited effectiveness in the electoral arena while others nominate optimal candidates through routinised and transparent procedures and run cohesive campaigns. Through a detailed analysis of the Nation Alliance (2018-2023) in Turkey, we argue that in the context of high regime vulnerability, power asymmetry between alliance partners and a high level of leadership control over candidate nomination in opposition parties hinder the potential effectiveness of formal pre-electoral alliances