Browsing by Author "Bilgin, Hasret Dikici"

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Citation Count: 6
Paths to Power: The Making of Cabinet Ministers in Turkey
(Oxford Univ Press, 2011) Sayari, Sabri; Bilgin, Hasret Dikici
This article examines the trends in the political and social pathways to the cabinet in the modern Turkish Republic. It intends to fill the lacunae in the literature on Turkey's cabinets and ministerial elites in several respects. First, it examines the cabinets and the changes and/or continuities in their composition from 1923 until 2009, a period which has not been covered in its entirety by previous research. Second, it provides data and analysis on the social background and recruitment patterns of prime ministers and cabinet members in the governments. Third, it focuses on the impact of regime changes and democratic transitions on the continuities and changes in the composition of the ministerial elites. Fourth, it locates the Turkish case within the wider comparative framework of studies on ministerial elites, particularly the findings of research on Southern Europe. The main argument of the article is that the aggregated profiles of the cabinets have displayed significant changes, along with some notable continuities, since the establishment of the Republic.
Citation Count: 8
Types of outcomes in factional rivalries: Lessons from non-democratic parties in Turkey
(Sage Publications Ltd, 2016) Musil, Pelin Ayan; Bilgin, Hasret Dikici
In non-democratic parties, oppositional factions have difficulty making inroads to the top executive party organs. There are two consequences for these groups: party split or leadership removal. In the former case, the oppositional faction exits and establishes its own party. In the latter, the opposition succeeds in altering the balance of power by removing the leader and the party goes through change. This article suggests that the level of power concentration within the dominant faction matters for the type of outcome in factional rivalries. If the power is concentrated in the hands of a small elite, the divisions within the elite can help the oppositional faction remove the party leader. If the power resides only with a single leader, the oppositional faction is likely to lose the struggle against the dominant faction and decide to exit. This study explores the causal mechanisms involved by comparing six non-democratic parties from Turkey.
Citation Count: 2
Westernist sceptics and anti-western reformers in the Turkish party system
(Routledge Journals, Taylor & Francis Ltd, 2017) Bilgin, Hasret Dikici
This paper focuses on the Turkish political parties' attitudes towards the country's European Union (EU) membership. It intends to analyse the concerns and demands of the political parties as the parliamentary debates shape government policies. The paper considers the parties' positions in the parliamentary power matrix (incumbency or opposition), their ideological tendencies and electoral concerns; and their relations with the social classes, all of which influence the party strategies and policies. It begins with outlining the politicized social cleavages and the characteristics of the party system. Next, it discusses the foreign policy orientation of the parties, their perceptions on Europe and the EU, the preferred type of integration with the EU and the ways they interpret the policies of the EU towards Turkey's membership. The paper finds that the secular social democratic parties have been the strongest supporters of membership mostly due to their historical pro-Western tendencies and their relations with republican big business. Their economic policies have been modelled on the European welfare state provisions. The nationalist parties have been consistently sceptical for cultural and nationalist reasons. The most interesting case emerges as the pro-Islamists, whose ideological reserve and scepticism disappear only temporarily and for practical reasons.