An empirical study on party switching in Turkey

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Thesis Type: Postgraduate

Institution Of The Thesis: Galatasaray Üniversitesi, İktisadi ve İdari Bilimler Fakültesi, İktisat, Turkey

Approval Date: 2017

Thesis Language: English

Student: GÜLEN DERYA ZAYİM

Supervisor: BİLGE ÖZTÜRK GÖKTUNA

Open Archive Collection: AVESIS Open Access Collection

Abstract:

Contrary to the argument that party switching is only wide-spread where democracy and party system institutionalization is incomplete and electoral rules are not accurately applied, switching behavior is also observed in the countries where democratic rules are well-adopted by political environment and agents. In this study, the theoretical explanations related to party switching behavior have been tested using 1983-2015 election data for Turkey. Following theoretical explanations and previous empirical studies, main motivations driving party switching are determined and the causes affecting the party switching behavior of the politicians in Turkish Grand National Assembly are investigated. In this context, logit estimation and parametric survival method are used to estimate party switching motivations.