Changing Values in Turkey: Religiosity and Tolerance in Comparative Perspective

Abstract

Using data from the World Values Surveys, this study examines changing values in Turkey and shows that rising religiosity and intolerance can be traced back to 1995 and have become more visible during the AKP's rule. Moreover, Turks are found to be the most religious of all the societies compared in the study. Findings suggest that Turkish voters are likely to continue being attracted to political parties like the AKP in the future, which would have important implications for Turkey's relations with its traditional friends in the West.

Notes

1. For examples of these studies see Ali Çarkoğlu and Ersin Kalaycıoğlu, Türkiye'de Siyasetin Yeni Yüzü [The New Face of Politics in Turkey] (Istanbul: Open Society Institute, June 2006); Ali Çarkoğlu and Ersin Kalaycıoğlu, The Rising Tide of Conservatism in Turkey (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009); Binnaz Toprak, Türkiye'de Farklı Olmak: Din ve Muhafazakârlık Ekseninde Ötekileştirilenler[To Be Different in Turkey: Those Who have become “Others” on the Axis of Religion and Conservatism] (Istanbul: Open Society Institute, 2008); Binnaz Toprak and Ali Çarkoğlu, Değişen Türkiye'de Din Toplum ve Siyaset [Religion, Society, and Politics in a Changing Turkey] (Istanbul: TESEV, 2006); Yılmaz Esmer, World Values Survey: Turkey Wave No. 5 (Ann Arbor, MI: World Values Survey, 2007); Yılmaz Esmer, “Radikalizm ve Aşırıcılık,” [Radicalism and Extremism], Milliyet (Turkish daily), May 31, 2009; Binnaz Toprak et al., Türkiye'de Farklı Olmak [To be Different in Turkey] (Istanbul: The Open society Institute and Bosphorus University, 2008).

2. Çarkoğlu and Kalaycıoğlu, The Rising Tide of Conservatism in Turkey, pp 82–95.

3. Ibid., p. 95.

4. Ibid., p. 96.

5. Rubin Konig, Ron Eisinga and Peer Scheepers, “Explaining the Relationship Between Christian Religion and Anti‐semitism in the Netherlands,” Review of Religious Research, Vol. 41, No. 3 (2000), p. 373.

6. By “narrow perspective on social reality” the authors refer to close‐visioned values, a difference between differentiated (open‐minded) and undifferentiated (closed‐ minded) styles of thinking, and construct a compound measure to capture the difference. See Konig et al. (2000), “Explaining the Relationship Between Christian Religion and Anti‐Semitism in the Netherlands,” pp. 375, 379.

7. Ibid., p. 383.

8. Peer Scheepers, Merove Gijsberts and Evelyn Hello, “Religiosity and Prejudice Against Ethnic Minorities in Europe: Cross‐national Tests on a Controversial Relationship,” Review of Religious Research, Vol. 43, No. 3 (2002), p. 242.

9. P. Scheepers, M. Gijsberts and E. Hello, “Religiosity and Prejudice against Ethnic Minorities in Europe: Cross‐national Tests on a Controversial Relationship,” Review of Religious Research, Vol. 43, No. 3 (2002), pp. 242–265.

10. Ron Eisinga, Albert Felling and Jan Peters, “Religious Belief, Church Involvement, and Ethnocentrism in the Netherlands,” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Vol. 29, No. 1 (1990), p. 54.

11. Rob Eisinga and Jaak Billiet, “Christian Religion and Ethnic Prejudice in Cross‐national Perspective,” International Journal of Comparative Sociology, Vol. 40, No. 3 (1999), p. 375.

12. Maurice Gesthuizen, Tom van der Meer and Peer Scheepers, “Ethnic Diversity and Social Capital in Europe: Tests of Putnam's Thesis in European Countries,” Scandinavian Political Studies, Vol. 32, No. 2 (June 2009), pp. 121–142.

13. M. Coenders, M. Lubbers, M & P. Scheepers, Majority Populations' Attitudes Towards Migrant and Minorities: Report 2 (Nijmegen, Netherlands: University Institute for Social and Cultural Research, 2004) and Majorities' Attitudes Towards Minorities: Key Findings from the Eurobarometer and the European Social Survey, Summary (Brussels: European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia, 2005).

14. Data for World Values Survey are generally referred to in four waves (1990, 1995, 2000, and 2005). However, the initial study that took place during 1981 was called the European Values Survey. This study uses data from all five data bases and therefore refers to them as waves 1 through 5.

15. See http://www.worlvaluessurvey.org. Accessed September 9, 2009.

16. Ibid.

17. Ronald Inglehart, “Changing Values among Western Publics from 1970–2006,” West European Politics, Vol. 31, Nos. 1–2 (January–March 2008), pp. 130–146.

18. Ronald Inglehart and Wayne Baker, “Modernization, Cultural Change and the Persistence of Traditional Values,” American Sociological Review, Vol. 5, No. 1 (February 2000), pp. 19–51.

19. Ersin Kalaycıoğlu, Turkish Dynamics: Bridge across Troubled Lands (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002); Ali Çarkoğlu and Ersin Kalaycıoğlu, The Rising Trend of Conservatism in Turkey.

20. Robyn Driskell, Elizabeth Embry and Larry Lyon, “Faith and Politics: The Influence of Religious Beliefs on Political Participation,” Social Science Quarterly Vol. 89, No. 2 (2008), pp. 294; Brian D. McKenzie, “Self‐Selection, Church Attendance, and Local Civic Participation,” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion Vol. 40, No. 3 (2001), p. 479.

21. Peer Scheepers, Merove Gijsberts and Evelyn Hello, “Religiosity and Prejudice Against Ethnic Minorities in Europe,” p. 242.

22. Elazar J. Pedazur, Multiple Regression in Behavioral Research (New York: Prentice Hall, 1997).

23. Yılmaz Esmer, “Radikalizm ve Aşırıcılık,” [Radicalism and Extremism] and Ali Çarkoğlu and Ersin Kalaycıoğlu, The Rising Tide of Conservatism in Turkey.

24. Ersin Kalaycıoğlu, Turkish Dynamics: Bridge across Troubled Lands (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005).