In the latest presidential elections of Turkey, which was realized on August 2014, Selahattin Demirtas, the co-leader of pro-Kurdish ethnic party HDP, got 9,76% of the votes. Compared to previous...Show moreIn the latest presidential elections of Turkey, which was realized on August 2014, Selahattin Demirtas, the co-leader of pro-Kurdish ethnic party HDP, got 9,76% of the votes. Compared to previous elections, this meant fifty percent increase in votes of the party. Thus, the main problem of the thesis is that in Turkey, considering the vote limitation of an ethnic party in a historical context, how could the noticeable rise in votes of HDP’s candidate Demirtas could be explained? The thesis will argue that there are several factors which contributed to the success of the HDP. First, for the last few years Kurdish political movement has been following a new strategy with which the party abandons Kurdish ethnic party claims and aims to become a party of Turkey, with increasing democratic modernization emphasis. Second, Gezi movement which occurred in 2013, showed the societal base of leftist movements in Turkey. Democratic modernization of HDP was in line with the ideals of Gezi movement and Demirtas successfully used the discourse of Gezi, whereby he enhanced the electorate base of his party. Lastly, the absence of 10% election threshold had an important role in voting behavior of the electorate and this factor had positive influence on the vote share of HDP.Show less
This thesis examines the relationship between party system change, particularly fragmentation, and the quality of democratic representation in Peru. Accordingly the main inquiry is “how does party...Show moreThis thesis examines the relationship between party system change, particularly fragmentation, and the quality of democratic representation in Peru. Accordingly the main inquiry is “how does party system fragmentation influence the quality of democratic representation?” Additionally, it aims to establish whether party system fragmentation contributes to what Scott Mainwaring (2006) has called a ‘crisis of democratic representation’. The abrupt collapse of the party system in the late 1980s and the state of democratic representation in Peru from 1990 onwards provide an ideal case study. Party system fragmentation and the quality of democratic representation are operationalized based on three identified indicators each. In the case of the former, competition, rootedness and the number of parties allows us to determine the fragmentation of the Peruvian party system. In the case of the latter, the emergence of outsiders, clientelist linkages and trust in institutions establish the quality of democratic representation. These indicators are observed from 1980 to 2011 in order establish the significant temporal development of the examined phenomena in Peru. This thesis finds that party system fragmentation in Peru has serious consequences for democratic representation. Based on the examination of the indicators of Party system fragmentation, the party system in Peru is characterized by instability. The predominance of different mechanisms of representation, beset by instability, allows observing the deterioration of the formal representation linkages between the electorate and their representatives, thus significantly affecting the quality of democratic representation. The Peruvian case highlights the importance of analyzing the party system and democratic representation as two significant phenomena that are interconnected and that, if in crisis, presuppose one of the most important academic challenges in Latin America, which is to comprehend the current crisis of democratic representation in the region.Show less
