Turkey’s Elections and the Politics of Uncertainty

by İlter Turan

The German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF) releases two new analysis pieces from its On Turkey series. Prof. İlter Turan, professor of international relations at İstanbul Bilgi University, writes about the municipal elections that took place on March 30. In the second piece, Prof. Fuat Keyman, professor of international relations at İstanbul Sabancı University, director of İstanbul Policy Center; and Dr. Şebnem Gümüşçü, instructor at İstanbul Sabancı University, project coordinator at İstanbul Policy Center, examine the differences between the governance styles of Turkey, Egypt, and Tunisia. In his analysis titled "Turkey’s Elections and the Politics of Uncertainty," Turan elaborates on the results of the municipal elections that took place on March 30 and argues that Turkey may be entering a long period of political uncertainty. Click here to read the full article In their analysis titled "Ruling vs. Governing: Pluralism and Democracy in Turkey, Egypt, and Tunisia," Keyman and Gümüşçü make a comparison between governance styles of Turkey, Egypt, and Tunisia from a perspective of ruling versus governance. They argue that, since it came to power in 2002, the Justice and Development Party gradually shifted its mode from governing through leadership based on rule of law, to ruling through domination justified by extraordinary situations that rest on existential struggles. Click here to read the full article GMF provides regular analysis briefs by leading Turkish, European, and U.S. writers and intellectuals, with a focus on dispatches from on-the-ground Turkish observers.  Search on www.amazon.com for hundreds of GMF’s newer publications formatted for the Kindle e-reader, or www.itunes.com for publications formatted for iPads. Search for German Marshall Fund for a full list of available titles. Both Kindle- and iPad-formatted publications are also available on www.gmfus.org.