Scholarly Publications - Political Science and Public Administration
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Item Open Access LGBTI politics and value change in Ukraine and Turkey by Maryna Shevtsova, United Kingdom, Routledge, 2021, 196 pp., £145.00 (hardback), ISBN 9780367676414(Routledge, 2025-05-03) Fındık, AyşenazItem Open Access Inclusive commissions and durable peace: lessons learned from the Liberia peace processes (1990–1996) and (2003)(SAGE Publications, 2025-11) Çuhadar, Esra; Druckman, DanielThe analysis of the Liberia peace processes (1990−1996) and (2003) revealed that inclusive commissions (ICs) were instrumental in achieving durable peace (DP). The first process, with only one commission that was not inclusive, failed to bring lasting peace; whereas the second one established seven commissions, four of which were inclusive, and resulted in DP. The paper highlights the contributions of four ICs: Truth and Reconciliation Commission; Independent National Human Rights Commission; Governance Reform Commission; and Contract and Monopolies Commission. These are ensuring continuity between phases of the peace process, building strong connections and trust between track one decision-makers and grassroots-level actors, hence combining breadth and depth of inclusion, and representing excluded social and political groups such as women while maintaining the advantages of an independent commission with technical experts. Furthermore, the paper provides evidence that ICs have the advantage of addressing the root causes of the conflict and delegating unpopular issues to a diverse independent group, thus elevating them beyond political polarization.Item Open Access Unilateral withdrawals from multilateral international treaties, 1945–2024(Brill Academic Publishers, 2025-05-13) Bayar, Tuğba; Bayar, MuratUnilateral withdrawals from multilateral international treaties (MIT s) constitute a substantial state behavior that offers insights into interstate cooperation and dynamics of treaty regimes. While much attention has been given to state withdrawals from intergovernmental organizations (IO s), relatively recent high-profile exits, such as the US withdrawal from the Iran Nuclear Deal and Turkey’s withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention, bring unilateral state withdrawals from MIT s to the forefront of scholarly and political debates. This paper contributes to the literature by presenting an original dataset that involves 945 unilateral withdrawals from 206 multilateral treaties from 1945 to 2024, investigating withdrawal reasons and issue areas. The dataset and descriptive analysis offer insights into withdrawal patterns.Item Open Access Item Open Access Narratives of institutional trust: Turkish migrants’ comparative perspectives in Germany and Türkiye(Sage Publications Ltd., 2025-12-29) Erden, Yiğit; Özçürümez, SaimeThis study identifies how Turkish migrants develop differing levels of institutional trust toward Germany and Türkiye, based on their personal experiences with institutions in both countries. By asking participants to reflect on the reasons behind these differences, the study uncovers three recurring narrative themes through which migrants articulate institutional trust: (1) the perception of redistributive justice and institutional predictability, (2) the existence of well-designed laws and regulations supported by effective enforcement mechanisms, and (3) the perception of fair and equal treatment by institutions. The findings indicate that participants consistently report higher levels of institutional trust in Germany. By centering the experiences of migrants who have been exposed to two distinct governance systems and providing empirical findings, the study makes a novel contribution to the literature on institutional trust. Unlike most existing studies that examine institutional trust within single-country contexts, this research offers a rare empirical contribution by focusing on the lived experiences of migrants who have interacted with two distinct institutional settings. Through a comparative lens grounded in migrant perspectives, the study not only captures how institutional trust varies across national contexts but also illustrates how the migration experience itself fosters a critical reassessment of what individuals expect from institutions.Item Open Access Making feminist and post-colonial sense of ontological (in)security: securing Turkey through women’s emancipation(Routledge, 2025-05-13) Karaman-Yilmazgil, İpek BaharThis article aims to uncover the relationship between ontological (in)securities and gender. Although ontological (in)securities are constructed by the power hierarchies between the ‘self’ and the ‘other’, gendered power hierarchies are rarely acknowledged. With the influence of ontological security studies, post-colonial studies, and feminist theorising, this article mainly argues that gender hierarchies are significant component of the ontological (in)securities. Adopting Turkey and its modernisation project initiated by the early republican male elites as a case study, this article aims to bring a gender lens to the study of ontological (in)security. This case study also uncovers that early republican elites’ initiation of state-led women’s emancipation project can be seen as a response to Turkey’s gendered ontological insecurities vis-a-vis the West.Item Open Access Measuring the Turkish welfare state: a multidimensional approach(Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 2025-09-29) Bölükbaşı, Hasan Tolga; Öktem, Kerem GabrielThis article develops a multidimensional approach to capture the multiple dimensions of welfare states around the world. We know a lot about why we need to take the multidimensional character of welfare states seriously. There is, however, no consensus in the literature on which dimensions to focus on. Nor is there agreement among welfare state researchers on how to bring them together in a single framework. We aim to advance the literature by developing a framework based on the key dimensions of overall size, coverage, programmatic composition, and generosity. We bring them together in the study of a middle-income country, Turkey, to capture multiple dimensions of the same welfare state. To do this, we analyse data on social spending and social rights in a complementary way. For social spending, we rely on the OECD's Social Expenditure Database. For social rights, we rely on original data on Turkey that we generated for three social rights databases: Social Citizenship Indicator Program (SCIP), Comparative Welfare Entitlements Dataset 2 (CWED 2), and Social Assistance and Minimum Income Protection Interim Dataset (SaMip). We aim to make three main contributions. First, we develop a multidimensional framework to provide a holistic analysis of welfare state development. Second, we introduce an original dataset on social rights in Turkey. Third, we highlight the value of our multidimensional approach by helping resolve hot button issues on welfare state change in post-1980 Turkey. We conclude that this multidimensional approach is capable of effectively capturing the complex dimensions of contemporary welfare states.Item Open Access The military as an autonomous actor: sources, dimensions, and dynamics(Edward Elgar Publishing, 2025-11-04) Sarıgil, Zeki; B. Guy PetersItem Open Access The making of the TRT historical-political series: state television and political communication in Turkey(Routledge, 2026-02-06) Grigoriadis, Ioannis N.; Karabıçak, Onur T.The transformation of Turkey’s state TV broadcaster TRT from a secularistmainstream media to an Islamist-nationalist government propagandatool paralleled Turkey’s democratic backsliding. Using critical discourseanalysis tools, this study contends that the AKP administration simulatesits contemporary political narrative in the past through the establish-ment of a new historic-political TV series, on state television. As controlover the media increased following the 15 July 2016 coup attempt,mainstreaming the government’s popular discourse through the topoiof ‘survival’ and ‘spoiling the plot’ has become a common theme in thatnarrativeItem Open Access Islam, origin countries, and democracy satisfaction among immigrants in Western Europe(SAGE Publications Inc., 2025-06-19) Just, AidaThis study posits that democracy satisfaction among foreign-born Muslims in Western Europe stems in large part fromtheir pre-migration experiences: because most Muslims originate from less democratic, more corrupt, and less eco-nomically developed countries, they are more satisfied with the way democracy works in their host country than otherimmigrants. Moreover, Muslims from Muslim-minority origin countries are more satisfied with democracy than Muslimsfrom Muslim-majority states, particularly if they came from highly authoritarian or corrupt regimes. Using individual-levelinformation collected as part of the European Social Survey (ESS) 5–10 round data (2010–2022), the empirical analysessupport these expectations. These findings have important implications for debates on Muslim immigrant politicalintegration and the prospects of democratic legitimacy in Western Europe.Item Open Access Genocide is a feminist issue: introduction to special issue(Routledge, 2025-07-18) Uğur Çınar, Meral; Krishnan, SnehaThis piece introduces our special issue called "Genocide is a Feminist Issue" which brings together works that reflect on the prospects and limits of feminism as we know it in the critical times we live in within the context of the Palestinian genocide. these contributions also serve as an invitation to feminists across the globe to build a more reflective, critical, inclusive, egalitarian, and pluralistic feminism in thought, speech, and practice.Item Open Access Never waste a good crisis: governing by the crisis through framing(Oxford University Press, 2026-02-02) Bölükbaşı, Hasan TolgaHow can policymakers in chronically reform-sclerotic economies leverage crisis framing to fast-track radical policy reforms? Building on crisis-governance scholarship that stresses the constructed nature of threat, urgency, and uncertainty elements of a crisis, and on the burgeoning mechanistic turn in policy-design studies, this article develops an integrative framework that opens the black box between shock and outcome. A theory-building process-tracing design is applied to the February 2001 financial crash in Turkey, a “least-likely” case for governing by the crisis, to explore the lightning-fast enactment of an independent central banking regime. Using original and published elite interviews, press coverage, and programming and legislative records, the study traces how the crash functioned as an activator that unleashed a cascade of first-order crisis framing mechanisms operating simultaneously: recognition of crisis as disruption, justification of urgent action, and endogenization of causes. These mutually reinforcing mechanisms helped forge a rare consensus, compressed decision time, and delivered a radical reform in just a matter of weeks. The findings advance the state of the art by unpacking how acceleration hinges on the strategic exploitation of framing mechanisms. The article concludes that the proposed mechanistic lens generates hypotheses about when and how crises may be constructed so as to produce transformational policy change.Item Open Access When trade-offs touch self-interests: Attitudes on education spending in a cross-country analysis(Cambridge University Press, 2025-07-10) Özel, Isik D.; Parrado, Salvador; Yıldırım, KeremThis paper investigates public attitudes towards education spending based on a survey experiment. It enquires whether a trade-off between education and other welfare domains, namely healthcare, unemployment benefits and pensions, diminishes support for higher public spending on education. Drawing on five Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries (Italy, Spain, Greece, Mexico and Turkey), the paper demonstrates that education spending preferences are contingent on the nature of trade-offs and the priorities of the stakeholder groups. Testing the predictive power of age, income, ideology, labour market positioning and gender, our research finds robust support for public spending on education across all countries. Nonetheless, this support diminishes significantly when trade-offs that are linked to cuts in other welfare domains are introduced.Item Open Access Defeated dictators? Autocratic opposition in subnational politics(Routledge, 2025-10-04) Patan, S.; Kahvecioğlu, AnılDespite substantial defects, elections in autocracies have become standard, where incumbents face risks of being voted out. But what happens when the opposition wins? To answer this question, we study the scenario where an autocratic party loses subnational elections but retains national power and introduce the concept of ‘subnational autocratic opposition (SAO)’. Through a conceptual exercise studying a unique kind of opposition with unprecedented powers, we contribute to authoritarian regime literature and opposition politics which has remained under-theorised. Building on a case study of Turkey and series of other cases across the world, we first define and clarify the concept and then identify three major strategies that SAO uses: resource deprivation and recuperation, authority subversion, and legitimacy erosion. We argue that SAO can play a significant role in regime survival. The implications of this research extend to the study of authoritarian resilience, demonstrating how autocrats navigate electoral defeats to sustain their rule.Item Embargo Patriarchy and political regimes: the role of patriarchal narratives in neopatrimonialism populism and the rise of the far right(Elsevier Ltd, 2025-05-09) Uğur-Çınar, MeralThis article is written with the motivation to call for more interaction between the fields of gender studies and the study of political regimes. Approaching the Turkish case in comparative perspective, it aims to demonstrate the necessity to bring the study of gender to the foreground of comparative politics and specifically the study of issues such as states, political regimes, political parties, and social movements. In what follows, I explain why gender studies need to have a central place in the study of political science and comparative politics in particular instead of being seen solely as the study of male domination. I demonstrate the crucial role patriarchy plays in neopatrimonialism, populism, and far right politics. I show that understanding the link between authoritarianism and patriarchy is key in making sense of the authoritarian dynamics in politics. Being able to understand this link, on the other hand, can serve as a vital springboard in imagining more democratic, pluralistic, and inclusive political futures, as some social movements have tried to show us.Item Open Access The revolution to come: a history of an idea from Thucydides to Lenin(Routledge, 2026-01-20) Alexander, John JamesItem Open Access Patriotic cosmopolitans in Budapest: narratives of belonging among highly skilled migrants(Routledge, 2025-02-27) Özçürümez, S.; Sönmez Gioftsios, Pınar DilanThis study examines self-identification and belonging of EU and non-EU highly skilled migrants and the role of patriotism and cosmopolitanism in their identity construction based on the discourse analysis of 30 semi-structured interviews conducted in Budapest in Fall 2022. The study finds that highly skilled migrants invent hybrid identities by weaving particularistic and universal attachments into an ensemble of cultural and moral cosmopolitanism embedded in constructive patriotism, which this study calls patriotic cosmopolitanism. The analysis advances thinking on the inception and manifestations of cosmopolitanism from below within everyday diversity of transnational urban spaces in complex anti-immigrant contexts.Item Open Access Reinventing Islamic civilization in Cold War Turkey: the case of Nuri Pakdil(Routledge, 2025-11-01) Yazıcı, İsmailThis article critically examines the civilizational thought of Nuri Pakdil, a prominent Islamist writer in Turkey. Central to his vision was what he termed ‘native thought’, an attempt to reconstruct the idea of Islamic civilization in response to the perceived political, cultural, and epistemological hegemony of the West. Drawing on an analysis of Pakdil’s writings, this study explores the ideological tenets underlying his reinvention of the Islamic civilization during the Cold War. It argues that Pakdil’s ideological stance can best be characterized as a form of Islamic nativism that combined a critique of Westernization, a pronounced anti-intellectualism framed through the dichotomy of native writers versus alienated elites, and a deep distrust of capitalism informed by leftist anti-imperialist critiques.Item Open Access The first case of competitive authoritarianism in Turkey: the Democrat Party, 1950–1960(Routledge, 2025-09-01) Gökçe, SüleymanThe extant literature on modern Turkish politics offers a mixed perspective on the Democrat Party (DP) period and the 1950s. The foundational literature extolls the DP era as a period of democratization which ended with a military coup, while the recent literature disputes this view. Based on new research, this article aims to provide conceptual clarity by establishing the DP period as the first example of competitive authoritarianism in Turkey. This re-articulation of the Turkish center right’s foundational moment provides a novel perspective on the DP era and the beginnings of multi-party period in Turkey.Item Open Access The History of political philosophy(Bloomsbury Publishing, 2026-02-05) Alexander, John James; Fiala, Andrew