Party Politics and Social Cleavages in Turkey

Despite radical changes in Turkish politics since the transition to a multiparty system in the mid-1940s, the center-right parties have consistently won an electoral majority. Why? How have they managed to maintain such a firm hold in the face of social cleavages that pit modernizing, secularist state elites against a conservative and pious majority? Ergun Özbudun uses the lens of Turkey's party and electoral systems to enhance our understanding of the country's polarized politics.