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Economic Performance and Political Outcomes: An Analysis of the Turkish Parliamentary and Local Election Results Between 1950 and 2004

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Abstract

The results of twenty-five Turkish elections for parliament and local administrations between 1950 and 2004 are studied. Turkish voters are found to take government's economic performance into account but not look back beyond one year. Furthermore, they are found to hold the major incumbent party responsible for both growth and inflation but minor incumbent parties, only for inflation. Also, they appear to vote strategically, especially in local and parliamentary by elections, to diffuse power. Finally, all parties exhibit a steady depreciation in their political capital while in office. These conclusions are essentially in conformity with the literature on other countries.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economics (mc 144), University of Illinois at Chicago, 601 S. Morgan Street, Chicago, IL, 60607-7121, U.S.A.

    Ali T. Akarca

  2. Department of Economics, Middle East Technical University, 06531, Ankara, Turkey

    Aysit Tansel

Authors
  1. Ali T. Akarca
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  2. Aysit Tansel
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Correspondence to Ali T. Akarca.

Additional information

Earlier versions of this paper were presented at the 10th Annual Conference of the Economic Research Forum (ERF) held in Marrakesh, Morocco in December 2003, at the 84th Annual Meeting of the Southwestern Economic Association held in Corpus Christi, Texas, in March 2004, and at the 34th Annual Meeting of the Illinois Economics Association (IEA) held in Chicago, Illinois, in October 2004. We have benefited greatly from the comments we have received from the audiences at these meetings. The detailed comments and suggestions provided to us by Noha El-Mikawy, our discussant at the ERF conference, by Frank Tachau, our discussant at the IEA meeting, and by an anonymous referee were especially valuable. We also gratefully acknowledge the financial support given to us by the ERF.

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Akarca, A.T., Tansel, A. Economic Performance and Political Outcomes: An Analysis of the Turkish Parliamentary and Local Election Results Between 1950 and 2004. Public Choice 129, 77–105 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11127-005-9013-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11127-005-9013-9

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