Deparliamentarization in Turkey: A Major Decline in the Scrutiny Function

Year 2019, Volume: 7 Issue: 1, 168 - 190, 27.03.2019

Mehmet Kabasakal

https://doi.org/10.14782/ipsus.539212

Cited By: 1

Abstract

In parliamentary democracies, governments are formed through parliamentary elections, and both the

cabinet and budget must receive the confidence of the legislature. The “golden age”, when parliaments

make laws without any pressure from the executives and have strong control over cabinets, ended by

20th century. For the last few decades, however, legislative studies have been pointing to a shift in the

balance of power from the legislative to the executive branch in many countries. The declining power

of parliaments is explained by many factors. Scholars who studied “declining parliaments” generally

agree on the commonly accepted contributing factors for deparliamentarization. These factors are

“constitutional arrangements, increasing global regulations, the complexity of issues and technicalfocus

in policy making, disciplinary party structures, the lack of intra-party democracy, the domination

of parties by their leaders, and electoral systems.” Although a trend of deparliamentarization has been

noted, mainly in parliamentary democracies, the decline of parliaments has not been as glaring and

forbidding everywhere. Thus, the variation, especially among similar democratic systems, calls for

a closer analysis of country cases. This study examines Turkey, and discusses the changes regarding

the power balance between the executive and legislative branches of government by identifying the

pattern of changes in constitutions and country’s electoral system, and party structures which tend

to stress party discipline and maintain leaders’ control. The paper analyzes the politics of Turkey

between 1946 and 2014 especially by focusing on the AKP rule after 2002. The power shift in Turkey

has been from parliamentary supremacy to a very strong executive, and deparliamentarization has

been particularly rapid and profound since the 1980s,. In 2017, a change in the constitution allowed a

transition to a presidential system and the new system is legalized by the constitutional amendments.

The paper concludes with the analysis that there is a significant decline in the power of the parliament

in Turkey, after 1980s, mainly in its scrutiny function. The longitudinal study of changes shows that

deparliamentarization, or the increase in the power of the executive, was caused by multiple domestic

and international factors that occurred simultaneously and reinforced each other’s impact. The

significant difference of Turkey from the other world cases are rapid constitutional changes, increasing

leader authority within the parties, and existence of dominant party system in Turkey since 15 years.

Keywords

Functions of parliament, declining parliaments, separation of powers, check and balance, powerful executive, leader dominance, parliamentary scrutiny

References

• Adams, J. C. (1970) The Quest for Democratic Law, The Role of Parliament in the Legislative Process, New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company. Aslan – Akman, C. (2012) “The 2011 Parliamentary Elections in Turkey and Challenges Ahead for Democratic Reform Under a Dominant Party System,” Mediterranean Politics, 7 (1): 77-95. Auel, K. (2007) “Democratic Accountability and National Parliaments: Redefining the Impact of Parliamentary Scrutiny in EU Affairs,” European Law Journal, 13, (4): 487-504. Ayan – Musil, P. (2015) “Emergence of a Dominant Party System after Multipartyism: Theoretical Implications from the Case of AKP in Turkey,” South European Society and Politics, (1): 71-92. Baldwin, N. D. J. (2004) “Introduction,” The Journal of Legislative Studies, 10 (2-3): 1-3. Baldwin, N. D. J. (ed.) (2006) “Concluding Observations: Legislative Weakness, Scrutinising Strength,” in Executive Leadership and Legislative Assemblies, 295-302, London and New York: Routledge Beer, S.H. (1973) “The Functions of Parliament,” in Beer, S.H; Ulam, A.B. (eds.), .Patterns of Government, The Major Political Systems of Europe: 206-222. Third Edition, New York: Random House. Beetham, D. and Boyle, K. (2005) Demokrasinin Temeller, 80 Soru 80 Cevap, Aslıhan Zeynep Kopuzoğlu (çev.), Ankara: Adres Yayınları. Blondel, J. (1973) Comparative Legislatures, New Jersey: Prentice–Hall, Inc. Blondel, J. and Cotta, M. (eds.) (1996) “Conclusion,” in J. Blondel and M. Cotta (eds.), Party and Government: 49-262, London: Macmillan Press Ltd. Bowler, S., Farrell, D. M. and Katz, R. S. (1999) “Party Cohesion, Party Discipline, and Parliaments,” in S. Bowler, D. Farrell, and R. Katz, (eds.), Party Discipline and Parliamentary Government: 3-22, Columbus: Ohio State University Press Bryce, J. (1990) “The Decline of Legislatures” (1921), reprinted in Philip Norton (ed.), Legislatures: 47-56, New York: Oxford University Press Christensen, T., Laegreid, P. and Roness, P.G. (2002) “Increasing Parliamentary Control of the Executive? New Instruments and Emerging Effects,” Journal of Legislative Studies, (1): 37-62. Crick. B. (1990) “The Reform of Parliament,” (1964), reprinted in Philip Norton (ed.), Legislatures: 275-285, New York: Oxford University Press Crimmins, J. and Nesbitt-Larking, P. (1996) “Canadian Prime Ministers in the House of Commons: Patters of Intervention’. Journal of Legislative Studies, (2): 145-171. Çarkoğlu, A., Erdem, T., Kabasakal, M. and Gençkaya, Ö. F. (2000) Siyasi Partilerde Reform, TESEV Yayınları No.13, İstanbul: Acar Matbaacılık Çarkoğlu, A. (2011) “Turkey’s 2011 General Elections: Towards a Dominant Party System?” Insight Turkey, 13 (3): 43-62. Dahl, R. A. (1971) Polyarchy: Participation and Opposition, New Haven: Yale University Press Diamond, L., Linz, J. J. and Lipset, S. M. (1995) Politics in Developing Countries, Comparing Experiences with Democracy, Boulder-London: Lynne Rienner Publishers Diamond, L. (1999) Developing Democracy, Towards Consolidation, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press. Dunleavy, P., Jones, G.W., and O’Leary, B. (1990) “Prime Ministers and the Commons: Patterns of Behavior, 1868 to 1987,” Public Administration, (1): 123-140. Duverger, M. (1964) Political Parties, London: Methuen Elgie, R. and Stapleton, J. (2006) “Testing the Decline of Parliament Thesis: Ireland, 1923- 2002,” Political Studies, (54): 465-485. Farrell, D.M. (1997) Comparing Electoral Systems, London: Prentice Hall / Harvester Wheatsheaf Gallager, M. (2014) “Electoral Institutions and Representation,” in Lawrence LeDuc, Richard G. Niemi and Pippa Norris (eds.), Comparing Democracies 4, Elections and Voting in a Changing World:11-31, London: Sage. Gözübüyük, Ş. (1997) Anayasa Hukuku ve Anayasa Metni, Sixth Edition, Ankara: Turhan Kitabevi Gumuscu, S. (2013) “The Emerging Predominant Party System in Turkey,” Government and Opposition, 48, (2): 223-244. Hale, W. (2008) “The Electoral System and the 2007 Elections: Effects and Debates,” Turkish Studies, 9 (2): 233 – 246. Haynes, J. (2005) Comparative Politics in a Globalizing World. Cambridge: Polity Press. Haynes, J. (2010) “Politics, identity and religious nationalism in Turkey, from Atatürk to the AKP”, Australian Journal of International Affairs, 64 (3): 312-327. Herzog, M. (2010) “Analyzing Turkey’s 2010 Constitutional Referendum” (http://fpc.org.uk/fsblob/1269.pdf) (accessed Nov. 8, 2017) Hirst, P. (1990) The Representative Democracy and Its Limits, Cambridge: Polity Press. Hooghe, M. (2014) “Citizenship and Patricipation,” in Lawrence LeDuc, Richard G. Niemi and Pippa Norris (eds.), Comparing Democracies 4, Elections and Voting in a Changing World: 58-75, London: Sage. Kabasakal, M. (2014) “Factors influencing intra-party democracy and membership rights: The Case of Turkey,” Party Politics, (5): 700-711. Kabasakal, M. (2016) “Küreselleşmenin ve Teknik Gelişmelerin Etkisiyle Yasa Yapımında Milletvekillerine Sağlanan Desteklerin Önemi,” Elektronik Mesleki Gelişim ve Araştırmalar Dergisi, 4 (2): 60-77. Kabasakal, M. (2018) “Measuring the Decline of Parliaments: New Indicators and Turkey as an Illustrative Case,” Ankara Üniversitesi SBF Dergisi, 73, (1): 269-289. Kaboğlu, İ.Ö. (2007) Anayasa Yargısı, Avrupa Modeli ve Türkiye, Fourth Edition, Ankara: İmge Kitabevi Kalaycıoğlu, E. (1988) “The 1983 Parliament in Turkey: Changes and Continuities,” in Metin Heper and Ahmet Evin (eds.), State Democracy and the Military Turkey in the 1980s, New York: Walter de Gruyter Kalaycıoğlu, E. (1990) “Cyclical Breakdown, Redesign and Nascent Institutionalization: The Turkish Grand National Assembly,” in Ulrike Liebert and Maurizio Cotta (eds.), Parliament and Democratic Consolidation in Southern Europe: 184-222, London: Pinter Publishers Kalaycıoğlu, E. (2002) “Elections and Governance’, in Sabri Sayarı and Yılmaz Esmer (eds.), Politics, Parties and Elections in Turkey: 55-71. London: Lynne Rienner Publishers Kalaycıoğlu, E. (2018) “Two elections and a political regime in crisis: Turkish politics at the crossroad,” Southeast European and Black Sea Studies, 18 (1): 21-51. Karpat, K. (1959) Turkey’s Politics, The Transition to a Multi-Party System, Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press Katz, R.S. and Mair, P. (2002) “The Ascendancy of the Party in Public Office: Organizational Change in Twentieth-Century Democracies,” in Richard Gunter, Jose Ramon-Montero, and Juan J. Linz (eds.), Political Parties, Old Concepts and New Challenges, NY: Oxford University Press Keyman, E. F. and Öniş, Z. (2007) The Turkish Politics in a Changing World, Global dynamics and Domestic Transformations, Istanbul: Istanbul Bilgi University Press Kılınç, R. (2014) “Critical Junctures, Catalysts, and Democratic Consolidation in Turkey,” Political Science Quarterly, 129 (2): 293-318. Kili, S.(1971). Turkish Constitutional Developments and Assembly Debates on the Constitutions of 1924 and 1961, Istanbul: Robert Collage Research Center Kocaoğlu, E. (2002) .Acemi Milletvekilinin Ankara Anıları, İyi adam Yayınları Lancaster, C. (2014) “The iron law of Erdoğan: the decay from intra-party democracy to personalistic rule,” Third World Quarterly, 35 (9): 1672-1690. Laver, M. and Shepsle, K..A. (1994) “Cabinet ministers and government formation in parliamentary democracies” in Michael Laver and Kenneth A. Shepsle (eds.), Cabinet Ministers and Parliamentary Government: 3-12, Chambridge: Chambridge University Press Laver, M. and Shepsle, K.A. (1999) “How Political Parties Emerged from the Primeval Slime: Party Cohesion, Party Discipline, and the Formation of Governments,” in S. Bowler, D. Farrell, and R. Katz (eds.), Party Discipline and Parliamentary Government: 23-48. Columbus: Ohio State University Press LeDuc, L.,Niemi, R. G. and Norris P. (2014) “Introduction: Democracy and Autocracy,” in Lawrence LeDuc, Richard G. Niemi and Pippa Norris (eds.), Comparing Democracies 4, Elections and Voting in a Changing World:1-10, London: Sage. Liebert, U. (1990) “Parliament as a central site in democratic consolidation: a preliminary exploration,” in.Ulrike Liebert and Maurizio Cotta (eds.), Parliament and Democratic Consolidation in Southern Europe: 3-30, London: Pinter Publishers Liebert, U. and Cotta, M. (1990) Parliament and Democratic Consolidation in Southern Europe, London: Pinter Publishers Lijphart, A. (1999) Patterns of Democracy: Government Forms and Performance in Thirty-Six Countries, New Haven: Yale University Press Linz, J. and Stepan, A. (1996) Problems of Democratic Transition and Consolidation Southern Europe, South America, and Post-Communist Europe, Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press Loewenberg, G. (1971) “The Role of Parliaments in Modern Political Systems,” in Gerhard Loewenberg (ed.) Modern Parliaments: Change or Decline: 1-20, Chicago: Aldine, Atherton Inc. Loewenberg, G,and Patterson, S. C. (1988). Comparing Legislatures, New York: University Press of America Inc. Martin, L. W. (2004) “The Government Agenda in Parliamentary Democracies,” American Journal of Political Science, 48 (3): 445-461. National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, Legislative Research Series, Paper # 2, Committees in Legislatures, Washington: NDI, 1996: 1-23. Norton, P. (1998) “Introduction: The Institution of Parliaments”, in P. Norton (ed.), Parliaments and Governments in Western Europe: 1-15, London: Frank Cass Offe, C. (1984) Contradictions of the Welfare State, Edited by John Keane, Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press. Offe, C. (1996) Modernity & The State, East, West, Cambridge: Polity Press. Olson, D. M. and Norton, P. (1996) “Legislatures in Democratic Transition,” in David M. Olson and Philip Norton (eds.), The New Parliaments of Central and East Europe: 1-15, London: Frank Cass Öniş, Z. (2013). “Sharing Power: Turkey’s Democratization Challenge in the Age of the AKP Hegemony,” Insight Turkey, 15 (2) 103-122. Öniş, Z. (2015) “Monopolizing the Centre: The AKP and the Uncertain Path of Turkish Democracy,” The International Spectator, 50, June 2015, (2): 22-41. Özbudun, E. (1970) Party Cohesion in Western Democracies: A Casual Analysis, Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Özbudun, E. and Gençkaya, Ö. F. (2009) Democratization and the Politics of Constitution- Making in Turkey, Budapest: Central European University Press Özbudun, E. (2012) “Turkey’s Search for a New Constitution,” Insight Turkey, 4 (1): 39-50. Özbudun, E. (2014) “AKP at the Crossroads: Erdoğan’s Majoritarian Drift,” South European Society and Politics, (2): 155-167. Pennock, J. R. and Smith, D.G. ( 1969) Political Science, Fifth Printing, New York: The Macmiilan Company. Powell, G. B. Jr. (1982) Contemporary Democracies, Participation, Stability and Violence, Cambridge: Harvard University Press Pridham, G. (1990) “Political Parties, parliaments and democratic consolidation in southern Europe: empirical and theoretical perspectives,” in Ulrike Liebert & Maurizio Cotta (eds.), Parliament and Democratic Consolidation in Southern Europe: 225-248, London: Pinter Publishers Puhle, H-J. (2002) “Still the age of Catch-allism? Volksparteinen and Partteienstaat in Crisis and Re-Equilibration,” in Richard Gunter, Jose Ramon Montero and Juan J. Linz (eds.), Political Parties, Old Concepts and New Challenges, New York: Oxford University Press Raunio, T. R. and Wiberg, M. (2008) “The Eduskunta and the Parliamentarisation of Finnish Politics: Formally Stronger, Politically Still Weak?” West European Politics, (3): 581 – 599. Sayarı, S. (2002) “Introduction,” in Metin Heper and Sabri Sayarı (eds.), Political Leaders and Democracy in Turkey: 1-7, Lanham: Lexington Books . Schmitt, C. (1988) The Crisis of Parliamentary Democracy, translated by Ellen Kennedy to English, Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press. Schmitt, C. (2006) Parlamenter Demokrasinin Krizi, A. Emre Zeybekoğlu (çev.), Ankara: Dost Kitapevi. Schillemans, T. (2008) “Accountability in the Shadow of Hieararcy: The Horizontal Accountability of Agencies,” Public Organization Review, June 2008, (8): 175-194 Schmitter, P.C. and Karl, T.L. (1991) “What Democracy Is… and Is Not,” Journal of Democracy 2 (3), 75-88. Shaw, Malcolm (1990) “Committee in Legislatures” (1979), reprinted in Philip Norton (ed.), Legislatures: 237 – 270, New York: Oxford University Press Shaw, M. (1998) “Parliamentary Committees: A Global Perspective,” The Journal of Legislative Studies, 4 (1): 225 – 251. Soysal, M. (1979) Anayasanın Anlamı, Fifth Edition, İstanbul: Gerçek Yayınevi. Strom, K. (1998) “Parliamentary Committees in European Democracies,” The Journal of Legislative Studies, 4 (1): 21-59. Sunar, İ. (2010) Demokrasi: Türkiye Serüveni, İstanbul: Doruk Yayımcılık. Thomas, G. P. (2004) ‘United Kingdom: The Prime Minister and Parliament,’ Journal of Legislative Studies, (2-3): 4-37. Tuncer, E. (2003) Osmanlı’dan Günümüze Seçimler 1877-2002, Second Edition, TESAV Yayınları No.24, Ankara: Yücel Ofset Ltd. Şti. Turan, İ. (1997) “The Turkish Legislature: From Symbolic to Substantive Representation,” in Gary W. Copeland and Samuel C. Patterson (eds.), Parliament in the Modern World, Changing Institutions: 105-128, Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press Turan, İ. (2000) TBMM’nin Etkinliği, TESEV Yayınları 14, İstanbul: Acar Matbaacılık. Uluşahin, N. (2016) “Kuvvetler Ayrılığı ve Yasama – Yürütme İlişkileri,” in Mehmet Kabasakal (ed.), Türkiye’de Siyasal Yaşam: Dün, Bugün, Yarın: 39-66, İstanbul: İstanbul Bilgi Üniversitesi Yayınları