Typologies of political party in Turkey

The study aims to make a typology experiment based on the question of how Turkish political parties can be typologized. For this purpose, the Turkish political parties which undertook the representation duty in the parliament from 1946 to the present were analyzed. The analysis model was created by arranging the main variables used by the typology of Gunther and Diamond with the sub-variables determined according to the basic dynamics of the Turkish political life. In the second stage, a typological model based on the similarities that stand out for the Turkish political parties was put forward and the selected parties were examined according to the analysis model and classified according to the typological model created. Thus, a typology experiment was conducted for the Turkish political parties. The analysis model of the Turkish political parties has been shaped based on the main variables (organizational structure, program objectives / ideological structure and hegemonyist / pluralist structure criteria) taken from Gunther and Diamond. The sub-indicators of these main variables determined for the Turkish political parties are the constituent element for organizational structure / team, organizational structure, civil society / community bond, and justification for the end of the party. Party's historical purpose / target / target audience are sub-indicators for program aims / ideological structure. Finally, the presence / influence of disciplinary rules in the party, the perception of the leader in the party / the method of election of the leader, intra-party democracy indicators, the method of determining the party's deputy candidates, and the extraordinary method of meeting of the party's top organ are the indicators for the main variable of the pluralist / hegemonic structure. The typology model established for Turkish political parties predicted 4 party types. These are parties with elite-based limited mass-targeted hegemonic or pluralistic trends; parties with faith / ethnic / class-based limited audience-targeted hegemonic or pluralistic trends; elite-based inclusive audience-targeted hegemonic or pluralist trending parties; faith / ethnic / class-based inclusive audience targeted parties with hegemonic or pluralist tendencies. Parties of each period examined in the study were examined according to the analysis model and tried to be classified according to the typology model.