Voter Religiosity Promoting Party-Voter Congruence on the ‘Super Issue’ in Turkey

Year 2021, Volume: 25 Issue: Özel Sayı, 271 - 289, 29.11.2021

Murat İnan

https://doi.org/10.53487/ataunisosbil.826603

Abstract

This research was set out to explore empirically party-voter congruence on the

‘super issue’ of Left-Right (L-R) ideological positioning from a responsiveness perspective in

Turkey. It aims to reveal the extent political parties respond to voters’ movement in the ideological

spectrum and the role of voter religiosity in determining the magnitude of this response. This

research covers a period exceeding half a century consisting past eighteen general elections held

between 1950 and 2018. It combines party-level and individual-level data acquired from Manifesto

Project (MP) and World Values Survey (WVS) datasets respectively. Findings suggest that voter

religiosity plays an important role in maintaining party-voter ideological correspondence in

Turkey. The level of voter religiosity determines the extent political parties align themselves with

their own voters’ ideological preference as well as dealign themselves from that of the most voted

rival political party voters. 

Keywords

Political representation, party-voter congruence, ideology, religiosity, Turkish politics.

Voter Religiosity Promoting Party-Voter Congruence on the ‘Super Issue’ in Turkey

Abstract

Bu araştırma Türkiye'de Sol-Sağ ideolojik konumlanma ‘süper meselesine’ ilişkin partiseçmen uyumunu cevap verebilirlik perspektifinden ampirik olarak araştırmak için yapılmıştır.
Çalışma siyasi partilerin seçmenlerin ideolojik yelpazedeki hareketlerine ne ölçüde cevap
verdiğini ve bu cevabın büyüklüğünü belirlemede seçmen dindarlığının rolünü ortaya koymayı
amaçlamaktadır. Bu araştırma, 1950 ile 2018 yılları arasında yapılan on sekiz genel seçimden
oluşan yarım asrı aşan bir dönemi kapsamaktadır. Araştırma sırasıyla Manifesto Projesi ve Dünya
Değerler Araştırması veri setlerinden elde edilen parti düzeyinde ve bireysel düzeydeki verileri
birleştirmektedir. Bulgular Türkiye'de parti-seçmen ideolojik uyumunun sağlanmasında seçmen
dindarlığının önemli bir rol oynadığını göstermektedir. Seçmen dindarlığı düzeyi siyasi partilerin
kendi seçmenlerinin ideolojik tercihlerine ne ölçüde uyum sağladığını ve aynı zamanda en çok oy
alan rakip siyasi parti seçmenlerininkinden ne ölçüde uyumsuzlaştığını belirlemektedir.

Keywords

siyasi temsil, Parti-seçmen uyumu, İdeoloji, dindarlık, Türk Siyaseti

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