Analysis of general election results in Türki̇ye in terms of the principles of justice in representation and stability in administration (1983-2023)

From a political perspective, elections are the reflection of citizens' declarations of will on state administration. In this respect, elections are one of the most important elements that make representative democracy possible. There are many technical details regarding the realization of the election event. The main purpose of the technical details that guide electoral practices is to ensure fairness (representation) and/or benefit (stability). From this point of view, the aim of the study is to determine and evaluate the level of representation and stability of general election practices in Türkiye. Within the scope of the study, the general elections held in Türkiye between 1983 and 2023 were evaluated in a chronological context. Data on general election results and established governments were analyzed in terms of fairness in representation and stability in administration. In addition, the average level of disproportionality of elections, the level of electoral disproportionality, the number of active parties and the distribution of voting power of political parties were determined with index measurements. Based on the results specific to Türkiye, it has been observed that the principles of justice in representation and stability in administration move in opposite directions. However, the elections of 6 November 1983, 12 June 2011 and 1 November 2015 showed relatively balanced results in terms of fair representation and stability in governance. In this context, in the case of Türkiye, it can be said that the principles of justice in representation and stability in administration are in a relatively balanced position under the conditions that the parliamentary seat rate of the political party that comes first in the election is between 50- 60%, the electoral disproportionality rate is between 4-8% and the number of effective parties in the parliament is less than 3.