Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-7bb8b95d7b-cx56b Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-10-04T21:44:32.617Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

3 - Regime Cycles, Constitution Making, and the Political System Question in Ottoman and Turkish Constitutional Developments

from Part II - Contextualizing Constitution Making in Turkey

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 December 2019

Felix Petersen
Affiliation:
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Zeynep Yanaşmayan
Affiliation:
Max-Planck-Institut for Social Anthropology
Get access

Summary

A democratic constitution-making process was carried out in Turkey from 2011 to 2013, but failed to produce a new constitution. In 2017, the ruling Justice and Development Party amended the existing 1982 Constitution, imposing radical changes on the political system and introducing the so-called Turkish-style presidential system. This chapter argues that such changes and movements are part of a distinct and regular cyclical oscillation within the political system from relatively authoritarian to relatively democratic phases and back again. These regular swings are created by an intense power struggle between ideologically competing forces. Each cycle has its own characteristic institutions and political system preferences. In authoritarian phases the power of the assembly is diminished, as are the checks and balances on political power. Democratic phases, on the other hand, support assembly power, political participation, basic rights, and constitutional checks and balances. The history of constitution making in Turkey reflects and reinforces these regime cycles.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Failure of Popular Constitution Making in Turkey
Regressing Towards Constitutional Autocracy
, pp. 84 - 117
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×