Alliances in Turkey: A sociological perspective on the "Millet" Alliance

This study examines the political ground on which the Nation Alliance components, established in Turkey in 2018, are preparing for the 2023 elections; interviews with the representatives of the alliance and the content analysis of the discourses shared by the alliance with the public. In Western democracies, alliances and coalitions made for the purpose of forming a government after the general elections are frequently encountered. However, before the elections, it is not uncommon for opposition parties that appealed to differing party bases to come together in order to change the democratic management system (for example, the presidential system). Therefore, this study will mainly focus on why the political parties from these different social segments and ideologies came together, what kind of partnership they made an alliance on, and what constitutional issues they agreed on. In order to understand and explain this unique political formation that emerged on the basis of the electoral alliance, a key conceptual framework consisting largely of the theses of the political theory of Antonio Gramsci, Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, and Jürgen Habermas was used. In addition to secondary sources, in-depth interviews were conducted with a total of 35 people, including 7 political party leaders, 16 deputies, 3 party unit heads, 3 provincial presidents, 2 metropolitan mayors, 3 journalists and 1 researcher.