New tendencies in the Turkish center-right: with special reference to the "new" Democrat Party

Abstract

The objective of the present study is to understand the general characteristics of new tendencies in the Turkish centre-right. To accomplish this task, the "new" Democrat Party (DP), which is one of the new political formations in Turkey, is analyzed through a comparison with two major centre-right parties - the Motherland Party (MP) and the True Path Party (TPP). By touching upon the some basic concepts of the centre-right politics such as economic and political liberalism, conservatism, liberal democratic system, this comparison refers to the question of how the Turkish centre-right realizes their political ideology and practice. It seems that the "new" DP which defends the necessity of liberal-pluralist values at the level of both state and society is much closer to the ideology of the centre-right politics than the MP and the TPP. Main conclusion drawn from this study is that the traditional structure of Turkish politics has been pushed toward a liberal democratic system by evolving political sentiment within socio-economic and political development. In such orientation, the newly emerging political movements in the centre-right appear as one of significant, determinant factors.