Researcher:
Aytaç, Selim Erdem

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Selim Erdem

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Aytaç

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Researcher Of Publications: search.filters.isAuthorOfPublication.e18eb925-90fb-4751-8337-ad6633c89adb

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    Policy priorities in the election manifestos of political parties in Turkey, 2002-2015
    (İstanbul Üniversitesi, 2017) Department of International Relations; Aytaç, Selim Erdem; Faculty Member; Department of International Relations; College of Administrative Sciences and Economics; 224278
    The policy areas prioritized by the major Turkish political parties during the election campaigns between 2002 and 2015 are examined in this study. The main questions to be addressed are as follows: Which policy areas do the political parties prioritize? Is there a significant divergence in the prioritization of different policy areas or are there common themes that are emphasized by all parties? Are there trends regarding the parties’ policy priorities over time? and finally, do the policy areas, as prioritized by the parties, correspond to what the public considers as important issues? To address these questions, the election manifestos of the four major Turkish political parties are analyzed. The analyses show that policy areas related to the economy, welfare, and quality of life are the most recurring themes in the election manifestos of the four major Turkish parties between 2002 and 2015.
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    Protests and repression in new democracies
    (Cambridge Univ Press, 2017) Schiumerini, Luis; Stokes, Susan; Department of International Relations; Aytaç, Selim Erdem; Faculty Member; Department of International Relations; College of Administrative Sciences and Economics; 224278
    Elected governments sometimes deal with protests by authorizing the police to use less-lethal tools of repression: water cannons, tear gas, rubber bullets, and the like. When these tactics fail to end protests and instead spark larger, backlash movements, some governments reduce the level of violence but others increase it, causing widespread injuries and loss of life. We study three recent cases of governments in new democracies facing backlash movements. Their decision to scale up or scale back police repression reflected the governments' levels of electoral security. Secure governments with relatively unmovable majorities behind them feel freer to apply harsh measures. Less secure governments, those with volatile electoral support, contemplate that their hold on power might weaken should they inflict very harsh treatment on protesters; they have strong incentives to back down. Our original survey research and interviews with civilian authorities, police officials, and protest organizers in Turkey, Brazil, and Ukraine allow us to evaluate this explanation as well as a number of rival accounts. Our findings imply that elected governments that rest on very stable bases of support may be tempted to deploy tactics more commonly associated with authoritarian politics.
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    Populism in Turkey
    (Springer, 2018) Department of International Relations; N/A; Aytaç, Selim Erdem; Elçi, Ezgi; Faculty Member; Researcher; Department of International Relations; Migration Research Program at Koç University (MIReKoç) / Göç Araştırmaları Uygulama ve Araştırma Merkezi (MIReKoç); College of Administrative Sciences and Economics; N/A; 224278; N/A
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    Interpersonal social trust in Turkey and its individual-level determinants
    (Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi / Middl East Technical Univesity, 2017) Department of International Relations; Department of International Relations; Department of International Relations; Aytaç, Selim Erdem; Çarkoğlu, Ali; Faculty Member; Faculty Member; Faculty Member; Department of International Relations; College of Administrative Sciences and Economics; College of Administrative Sciences and Economics; College of Administrative Sciences and Economics; 224278; 125588; 219276
    The literature on social capital indicates that interpersonal social trust is associated with a variety of socially desirable outcomes such as economic development and low crime rates. Turkey consistently ranks among the lowest in comparative social trust studies. Therefore understanding the micro-level determinants of interpersonal trust in Turkey is an important question. Based on a representative survey study that was conducted among the eligible voters in Turkey in late 2015, we show that individuals with high levels of perceived political efficacy and trust towards public institutions tend to display higher levels of interpersonal trust. This finding suggests that reforms towards better functioning public institutions are likely to contribute to enhancing the stock of interpersonal trust in Turkey as well. / Kişilerarası sosyal güvenin ekonomik gelişme, düşük suç oranı gibi pek çok olumlu toplumsal durum ile ilişkisi literatürde kabul görmüş durumdadır. Bu nedenle Türkiye'de çok düşük düzeyde olan kişilerarası sosyal güvenin mikro düzeyde belirleyicilerini anlamak oldukça önemlidir. 2015 yılı sonunda Türkiye'nin seçmen yaşındaki nüfusunu temsil niteliğine sahip bir örneklem verilerine dayanarak yaptığımız analizde elde ettiğimiz bulgular kurumlara güvenin ve politik etkinlik algısının daha yüksek kişilerarası sosyal güvene sahip bireylerin özelliklerinden olduğunu göstermektedir. Bu sonuç, daha iyi işleyen ve daha duyarlı bir siyasi sistemin toplumdaki kişilerarası güvene katkıda bulunacağını göstermektedir
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    Varieties of populism in a changing global context: The divergent paths of Erdoğan and Kirchnerismo
    (Sheridan Press, 2014) Department of International Relations; Department of International Relations; Aytaç, Selim Erdem; Öniş, Ziya; Faculty Member; Faculty Member; Department of International Relations; College of Administrative Sciences and Economics; College of Administrative Sciences and Economics; 224278; 7715
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    Do voters respond to relative economic performance?: evidence from survey experiments
    (Oxford Univ Press, 2020) Department of International Relations; Aytaç, Selim Erdem; Faculty Member; Department of International Relations; College of Administrative Sciences and Economics; 224278
    An emerging literature suggests that economic voting is driven by incumbents' relative performance, that is, how the national economy performed relative to recent past outcomes in the country (domestic comparison) and in a cross-national perspective (international comparison). While scholars have presented macro-level evidence in this direction, to date there has been scant micro-level evidence as to whether voters' evaluations of incumbent competence are shaped by relative performance. This article contributes to the literature by presenting two population-based survey experiments fielded in the United Kingdom and in Istanbul, Turkey. Both British and Turkish voters' evaluations of incumbent competence are affected by information about how well the economy performed in domestic and international comparisons, though Turkish voters seem to react to international performance comparison to a lesser degree than to a domestic one. In both countries highly educated individuals are more responsive to the incumbent's relative international performance. These results provide support for macro-level analyses that highlight the importance of incumbents' relative performance for economic voting.
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    Economic voting during the AKP era in Turkey
    (Oxford University Press, 2020) Department of International Relations; Aytaç, Selim Erdem; Faculty Member; Department of International Relations; College of Administrative Sciences and Economics; 224278
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    Determinants of formal giving in Turkey
    (Indiana University Press, 2017) Campbell, David A.; Department of International Relations; Department of International Relations; Çarkoğlu, Ali; Aytaç, Selim Erdem; Faculty Member; Faculty Member; Department of International Relations; College of Administrative Sciences and Economics; College of Administrative Sciences and Economics; 125588; 224278
    This article shares the results of a recent study on individual giving to civil society organizations in Turkey. Using interview data collected from a random sample of 2,495 Turkish citizens in 2015, we estimate that about 12% to 13% of the Turkish population engage in giving, a relatively low figure compared to international giving. We find that being male, being educated, being satisfied with one’s income, being satisfied with one’s economic circumstances, being a rural resident, as well as one’s level of religiosity, civic activism, and institutional trust are all positively associated with giving in Turkey. Our findings provide a foundation for understanding philanthropic giving in Turkey and contribute to ongoing research about determinants of individual giving across countries.
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    Beyond opportunity costs: campaign messages, anger and turnout among the unemployed
    (Cambridge University Press (CUP), 2020) Rau, Eli Gavin; Stokes, Susan; Department of International Relations; Aytaç, Selim Erdem; Faculty Member; Department of International Relations; College of Administrative Sciences and Economics; 224278
    Are people under economic stress more or less likely to vote, and why? With large observational datasets and a survey experiment involving unemployed Americans, we show that unemployment depresses participation. But it does so more powerfully when the unemployment rate is low, less powerfully when it is high. Whereas earlier studies have explained lower turnout among the unemployed by stressing the especially high opportunity costs these would-be voters face, our evidence points to the psychological effects of unemployment and of campaign messages about it. When unemployment is high, challengers have an incentive to blame the incumbent, thus eliciting anger among the unemployed. Psychologists have shown anger to be an approach or mobilizing emotion. When joblessness is low, campaigns tend to ignore it. The jobless thus remain in states of depression and self-blame, which are demobilizing emotions.
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    Trust in political institutions in Turkey: cultural and institutional explanations and the “home team" effect
    (Hacettepe Üniversitesi, 2019) Department of International Relations; Department of International Relations; Department of International Relations; Ertan, Güneş; Aytaç, Selim Erdem; Çarkoğlu, Ali; Faculty Member; Faculty Member; Faculty Member; Department of International Relations; College of Administrative Sciences and Economics; College of Administrative Sciences and Economics; College of Administrative Sciences and Economics; 219276; 224278; 125588
    Trust in political institutions can be seen as an indicator of the level of general satisfaction with the political system in democratic societies, and it is also one of the fundamental conditions for the legitimacy and well-functioning of the system. For this reason, understanding the level of trust in political institutions as well as its determinants is an important question facing social scientists. In this study, we examine the individual-level determinants of trust in parliament and government in Turkey. Our data is based on an original survey with 2.495 respondents fielded between August 29 and November 29, 2015 on a nationally representative sample from 68 provinces. Our findings indicate that there is a positive relationship between political trust and satisfaction of individuals with their lives in general, with their economic circumstances, their level of interpersonal trust, and perceptions of political efficacy. In addition, supporters of the ruling AK Party display higher trust in political institutions. On the other hand, those belonging to Kurdish and Alevi communities and those living in urban areas seem to have relatively lower levels of political trust. There is also a negative relationship between level of education level and political trust. Overall, both institutional and cultural approaches to political trust have explanatory power within the Turkish context. Moreover, in line with the “winning team” argument, supporters of the current government, who can be considered as the winners of democratic contention, display higher levels of trust towards political institutions. /Öz: Siyasi kurumlara güven, demokratik toplumlarda hem mevcut siyasal sisteme ilişkin genel tatmin düzeyinin bir göstergesi olarak görülebilir hem de sistemin meşruiyeti ve iyi işlemesi için temel koşullardan biridir. Bu nedenle, siyasi kurumlara güvenin düzeyini ve belirleyicilerini anlamak, sosyal bilimcilerin karşısına önemli bir soru olarak çıkmaktadır. Bu çalışmada, Türkiye’deki seçmen yaşındaki nüfusu temsil etme niteliğine sahip, 68 ilden 2.495 katılımcı ile 29 Ağustos ve 29 Kasım 2015 tarihleri arasında gerçekleştirilen özgün bir saha araştırmasının verileri kullanılarak parlamento ve hükümete güvenin bireysel düzeydeki belirleyicilerini incelemekteyiz. Bulgularımıza göre bireylerin genel olarak hayatlarından ve ekonomik durumlarından memnuniyetleri, kişilerarası güven düzeyleri, ve siyasal etkinlik algıları ile siyasal güven arasında olumlu bir ilişki bulunmaktadır. Ayrıca iktidardaki AK Parti’nin seçmenlerinin siyasal kurumlara olan güveni diğer vatandaşlara göre daha yüksektir. Buna karşın, Kürt ve Alevi vatandaşlar ile kentsel alanlarda yaşayanlar görece olarak daha düşük siyasal güven duygusuna sahip görünmektedir. Eğitim düzeyi ile siyasal güven arasında da negatif bir ilişki tespit edilmiştir. Özet olarak, Türkiye’de hem kurumsal hem de kültürel yaklaşımların siyasal güven düzeylerini açıklayabilir olduğunu görmekteyiz. Ayrıca literatürdeki ‘kazanan takım’ hipotezine uygun olarak demokratik mücadele içinde kazanan olarak tarif edilebilecek hükümet partisi taraftarlarının siyasi kurumlara güvenleri de yüksek seyretmektedir.