Turkey’s Political Leaders

Investigates how leaders in Turkey’s political sphere have hindered democratic consolidation

• Explores political leaders and their impact on democracy
• Reveals a salient pattern of authoritarianism and undemocratic behaviour amongst political leaders to account for Turkey’s inability to consolidate democracy in its multi-party history
• Incorporates a study of both intra-party rule and leadership in the broader political context to offer a fuller understanding of the forces that have shaped political developments in the country
• Uses interviews and Turkish and English sources to build an empirically rich documentation of Turkey’s multi-party history
• Offers scholars of democracy and democratisation lessons into the role elites play in democractic breakdowns

This longitudinal study reveals how the conduct of political leaders has been central to the shortcomings of the Turkey’s democratic system. The most prominent political leaders, from the birth of the Republic until today, have all displayed a desire to sustain their rule through authoritarian and undemocratic measures. This has ensured efforts to improve, strengthen and respect democratic institutions and practices have been weak or non-existent across the multi-party era. In turn, the chapters identify how the leaders’ values, beliefs and practices underwritten by authoritarianism, have resulted in the tenuous existence of democracy, oscillating between simply enduring and failure during the periods they occupied the seats of political power. By looking at the Turkish experience, the book also offers comparative lessons and insights into the role political leaders play in the survival or failure of democracy.