The Post-1989 experience with the presidency in Turkey : a comparative analysis of the presidencies of Turgut Özal and Süleyman Demirel with special reference to their respective conceptions of the presidency

Abstract

The present study is an attempt to analyze in a comparative perspective Turgut Özal's and Siileyman Demirel's presidencies, which together make up the post-1989 civilian experience with the presidency under the Constitution o f 1982. A particular reference is made to the conceptions of the office in those presidents. Assessment is based on an evaluation of the constitutional position of the presidency vis-à-vis the Council of Ministers, on the one hand, and the other actors concerned in the political process, on the other, under that constitution. For a better understanding, however, it is endeavored to determine where the Turkish system o f government stands along the presidential-parliamentary government continuum. The work essentially argues that the differences between Turgut Özal's and Siileyman Demirel's conceptions of the presidency is predicated upon the difference between the former's belief in the need to transform the system of government from the existing predominantly parliamentary to a presidential one (systemic transformation) on the one hand, and the latter's belief in the virtues of the present parliamentary system that the needed change must be limited to revising that system within itself (intra-systemic revision).