Conceptual sources of political attitude: A comparison over Ak Parti and Saadet Partisi

The beginning of the 21st century is a period of considerable changes and transformation in Turkish political life. The taking part in the Turkish political life of Justice and Development Party –AK Parti- and Felicity Party –Saadet Partisi- which were established by the political cadres coming from the same political tradition in 2001, can be seen that important part of this changes and transformations. The AK Parti was founded after the change and transformation in the National Vision ideology. Although two parties' that came from the same political tradition the political discourse and ideological orientation differs on particular points. The main point of this research is the claim that the concepts of democracy, secularism, European Union (EU) and capitalism/interest used by AK Parti and Saadet Partisi in their political discourse and practices are the source of divergences between these two parties. In this context, the comparison of the AK Parti and Saadet Partisi on the concepts which are claimed to be the source of divergence constitutes the subject of the research. On the other hand the political attitudes of political parties constitute the basis of the comparison since it can be compared over concepts. In this study that is comparing the political attitudes of AK Parti and Saadet Partisi towards the selected concepts, the current literature was reviewed and related text, reports, declarations and discourse were examined in the subject of matter of the research. It can be said that the political attitudes of AK Parti and Saadet Partisi discussed in the context above are similar in terms of democracy and secularism and separated from each other in terms of EU, capitalism and interest. At the end of the study, the political attitudes of AK Parti and Saadet Partisi were compares over selected concepts. Key Concepts: Political Attitudes of Political Parties, AK Parti, Saadet Partisi, Democracy, Secularism, European Union, Capitalism-Interest.