Originally presented as the author's Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ankara Üniversitesi. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [241]-251).

Originally presented as the author's thesis (Ph. D.)--Ankara Üniversitesi. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [241]-251).

The dissertation seeks to contribute to our understanding of the role played by parties in the consolidation of democracy in the context of military tutelage and anti-system challenges. It finds that the conceptualization of parties under internal and external pressures in competitive party systems can be a useful framework to understand the constraints faced by parties in new democracies contemplating legal and constitutional reforms as a way to deepen democracy. The dual party framework focuses on the significance of the institutional (identity and party unity) and rational concerns of parties (electoral success) during democratization, at the same time that it integrates the role of the military in mediating the interplay between the internal and external challenges for parties. On the basis of the insights derived from the political party literature and democratization studies, the thesis identifies the formation of political identity as the major internal challenge for parties as they attempt to institutionalize themselves in the context of revitalized electoral competition. A politically autonomous military constitutes the principle external challenge for parties particularly in the presence of "anti-system" actors. The study then traces the formation and development of political identities by the three major Turkish parties that held power between 1983 and 1995. In particular, it analyzes how these pressures unfolded for party leaders as they confronted a controversial dilemma of reconciling democratization with the maintenance of stability due to the ethnic separatist threat, and to a lesser extent, religious fundamentalism. The study demonstrates that while the Turkish party leaders used democratization agendas as an image building' strategy in the formation of their parties' political identities, their capacity to formulate and implement clear, coherent and consistent democratization reform strategies was hampered by the problems they faced in meeting o

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Virginia Commonwealth University, 2007. / Prepared for: L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs. Bibliography: leaves 135 - 147 . Also available online via the Internet.

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