Türkiye örneğinde yanaşmacı devamlılık, ikna ve tercih değişikliği

Political parties can establish various types of linkages with voters. For instance, they can carry out specific policy mandates directed towards voter groups or they can garner support thanks to a charismatic leader. These different options are not mutually exclusive. On the contrary, various linkage types can interact with each other. For instance, how does long-term personalistic contact with voters affect their policy preferences? If a patron provides discretionary benefits to a client in an iterated fashion, does the voter change his opinions and preferences as a result of continuous interactions? This dissertation tries to untangle the interaction between policy preferences and clientelistic iteration. Different linkage strategies do not have to be mutually exclusive, and there can be ``spillover'' effects of clientelistic iterations in the long run. This study theorizes the policy areas where we should observe this effect. It provides an account in which convergence of perceptions and preferences occur due to increasing levels of predictability, trust, and mutual dependency between patrons and their clients in iterated clientelistic interactions. The study argues that parties which have extensive, long-term clientelistic linkages with voters will not only provide personal benefits to clients to support the party, but patrons will also persuade voters in specific policy areas. The study focuses on the Turkish case, and it combines representative survey data, several experiments, an original online survey with a fieldwork conducted in two İstanbul neighborhoods to show the effect of clientelistic continuity on attitudes and persuasion. Empirical findings indicate that the long-term effects of clientelism are particularly significant when the policy area is salient for the political party or if the party owns the issue. Furthermore, the qualitative research indicates that long-term clientelism is sensitive to poverty, urban precarity, and gentrification. While poverty facilitates continuity, external shocks such as gentrification are conducive to re-intensification and suspension. Empirical findings compare these alternative trajectories of clientelistic continuity and they provide evidence for the theorized claims.