Reconstructing Democracy and Political Parties

ISBN-13: 9783639087208 / Angielski / Miękka / 2009 / 376 str.

Canan Aslan Akman

Opis

Studies of democratization in the 1980s and 1990safter the second-wave of military regimes across theworld investigated the process from various angles,each focusing on its specific dimensions and actors.This study analyzes the Turkish experience ofre-democratization preceded by a relatively shortmilitary regime (1980-1983) from the perspective ofpolitical parties. It deals with both the trajectoryof democratization and the reconstruction ofpolitical parties as institutions. Turkishdemocratization has turned out to be a protractedprocess extending into the late 1990s-and evencontinuing today--, and it has unfolded through aseries of political reforms. While the Turkishmilitary has retained its tutelary and supervisoryrole, political parties emerged as the criticalactors in the reform process. This study looksclosely into the identities and strategies ofTurkeys major political parties and party elites whoheld power in the first decade after the transitionfrom military rule. It analyzes how parties have metthe double challenge of institutionalizing and of democratizating the political system amidst internaland external pressures.

O autorze

Canan Aslan-Akman, Ph.D: Studied Women s Studies at Trinity
College-Dublin and political science at McGill University.
Research interests include democratization, political parties,
Turkish politics and and women s political participation.
Assistant professor of political science and gender studies at
METU, Ankara Turkey since 2002.