The Emergence of Centre-left Politics in Turkey

This book is a comprehensive analysis of the emergence of center-left politics in Turkey, with particular reference to West European social democracy. The hypothesis that formed the basis of this work was that neither left-of-center nor democratic left RPP could become a social democratic party in the West European sense of the concept, though its transformation throughout the 1960s and 1970s had marked the emergence of center-left movement as a mainstream political current in Turkish politics. Historical background of center-left politics is analyzed with three main factors that have been influential in RPP’s shift to left-of-center. They are the DP’s mode of policy making; the new socio-economic structure of Turkey; the 1961 Constitution and the rise of the left. The book demonstrates how did the RPP’s left-of-center strategy transformed to the democratic left ideology under the leadership of Ecevit. It analyzes the specific characteristics of social democracy in comparison with the West European social democracy and points out the characteristics of North European Social Democracy with the examples of Swedish and German Social democratic parties.