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ABSTRACT
Existing research on the relationship between political trust and political participation has generated mixed results. In pursuit of a better explanation of this relationship, we argue that trust in institutions has varying effects on participation for minority and majority groups. In this paper, we analyze Turkish and minority attitudes toward Turkish institutions. We find strong support that trust in institutions affects majority and minority political participation differently. These results highlight the divergent processes at work in the relationships between political trust and political participation across majority and minority citizens in Turkey due to their varied experiences with these institutions. Some of our most interesting findings show that minorities, unlike citizens from the majority group who have higher trust in police, are more likely to protest, and minorities with trust in political parties are actually less likely to join these parties. We explain these surprising findings within the context of Turkey’s post-armed conflict political context.
Acknowledgements
Authors are listed in alphabetical order and contributed in equivalent ways to different sections of the paper. A previous version of this paper was presented at the 2016 International Studies Association Conference in Atlanta, GA. The authors would like to thank Ozum Yesiltas and anonymous reviewers for their comments on previous versions of this paper.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes on contributors
Tavishi Bhasin is an Associate Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at Kennesaw State University and affiliated with the International Conflict Management program. She studies political dissent, autonomy movements and comparative institutions with a regional focus on South Asia.
Charity Butcher is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science and International Affairs at Kennesaw State University and affiliated with the International Conflict Management program. She is an Associate Editor of The Journal of Peacebuilding and Development and conducts research on a variety of topics, including political participation, democratization, civil society, civil war and ethnic conflict.
Deniz Gumustekin holds a BA from University of South Carolina, a Master’s Degree in Political Science from Georgia State University and is currently doing her PhD in International Conflict Management in Kennesaw State University. She has a special interest in comparing deeply divided societies and delays in peace negotiation processes.
Notes
1 Zannakis, Wallin, and Johansson, “Political Trust and Perceptions”; Herian, Shank, and Abdel-Monem, “Trust in Government”; Karakoç, “Ethnicity and Trust”; and Warren, Democracy and Trust.
2 Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP); Karimova and Deverell, “Minorities in Turkey.”
3 Zannakis, Wallin, and Johansson, “Political Trust and Perceptions.”
4 Braithwaite and Levi, Trust and Governance.
5 Ibid.
6 Herian, Shank, and Abdel-Monem, “Trust in Government”; Scholz and Lubell, “Adaptive Political Attitudes.”
7 Almond and Verba, The Civic Culture.
8 Gamson, Power and Discontent.
9 Craig and Maggiotto, “Political Discontent and Political Action.”
10 Norris, Critical Citizens.
11 Barnes and Kaase, Political Action.
12 Hooghe and Marien, “A Comparative Analysis of the Relation.”
13 Katsanidou and Eder, “Vote, Party or Protest.”
14 Criado et al., “Ethnicity and Trust”; Hakansson and Sjoholm, “Who Do You Trust”; and Delhey and Newton, “Predicting Cross-national Levels of Social Trust.”
15 Whitt, “Institutions and Ethnic Trust”; Bahry et al., “Ethnicity and Trust.”
16 Levi and Stoker, “Political Trust and Trustworthiness.”
17 Karakoç, “Ethnicity and Trust.”
18 Karimova and Deverell, Minorities in Turkey; Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP), “Definitions.”
19 Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP), “Definitions.”
20 Karimova and Deverell, Minorities in Turkey.
21 Zeydanlioglu, “The White Turkish Man’s Burden.”
22 Yavuz, “Five Stages of the Construction.”
23 Karimova and Deverell, Minorities in Turkey.
24 Skenderis, “The Ethnic Greeks of Turkey.”
25 Karimova and Deverell, Minorities in Turkey.
26 Gunter, “The Continuing Kurdish Problem in Turkey.”
27 Balci, “Politicization of Kurdish Question,” 102.
28 Balci, “Politicization of Kurdish Question.”
29 Guzeldere, “Was There, Is There, Will There Be a Kurdish Plan?”
30 Commission of the European Communities, Turkey 2007 Progress Report.
31 Mihailescu, “Dampening the Power Keg.”
32 BBC News, “Who Are Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) Rebels?”
33 Seale, “Turkey’s War.”
34 “Turkey Approves Framework for PKK.”
35 Letsch, “Kurdish Leader Abdullah Ocalan.”
36 Duzel, “Devlet Kurt Vatandasa Guveniyor mu?”
37 Gundem, “Altan-Tan: Erdogan’nin Kredisi Yuksek.”
38 Ter-Matevosyan, “The Armenian Community.”
39 Lehmann, “Turkey Continues Deadly Crackdown.”
40 “Turkey Closes 20 TV and Radio Stations.”
41 Gurbuz, “Turkey Arrests 32,000 in Coup Plot.”
42 Yeginsu and Timur, “Turkey’s Post-coup Crackdown.”
43 One odd finding is that confidence in the armed forces and police were particularly high among minorities in 1996 and in 2007, which is particularly puzzling for 1996 given that the country was embroiled in civil war at the time. However, these figures may represent false answers given by respondents, particularly among those minorities that may have felt fearful of the police and armed forces at the time. This explanation is supported by a PIAR-GALLUP poll taken in 1994 which demonstrated that 51 percent of Kurds surveyed defined the problem facing the Kurds in Turkey as one “of ruthless repression by the state” indicating Kurdish fear of the government, police and armed forces (Cizre, “Turkye’s Kurdish Problem,” 222).
44 See http://ksuweb.kennesaw.edu/~cbutche2/ and/or http://tavishibhasin.org. The 6th wave of data has far fewer minorities than the 5th wave.
45 Madrano, “Managing Weights and Population Weights.”
46 Katsanidou and Eder, “Vote, Party or Protest.”
47 Ibid.
48 The exact question used said,
I’m going to read some different forms of political action that people can take, and I’d like you to tell me, for each whether you have actually done any of these things, whether you might do it, or would never, under any circumstances, do it. – joined a boycott, attended a lawful demonstration, joined an unofficial strike, or occupied a building or factory. (WVS, Integrated Questionnaire, YEAR)
49 Missing data were also coded as minority groups, since the context of civil war and specifically repression of Kurdish language speakers in the past in Turkey might incline some minorities to refuse to answer this question, but that there is little reason to believe that Turkish individuals would not answer the question. Further, we recognize that some minority individuals may speak Turkish at home, and thus, this variable is not a perfect measure of minority status. Still, we believe that this variable allows us to examine a strong portion of minority groups to assess how they differ from individuals that speak Turkish as their primary language.
50 Katsanidou and Eder, “Vote, Party or Protest.” While additional variables such as social capital have been used in previous studies of political participation, these variables were not available for this study.
51 Craig and Maggiotto, “Political Discontent and Political Action.”
52 Due to perfectly predicted variables, we were unable to analyze the effects of our variables on party membership in the 6th wave of the World Values Survey.
53 Ferik, Recep Tayyip Erdogan’li Yillar.
54 Hale and Ozbudun, Islamism, Democracy and Liberalism.
55 Keyman and Özkirimli, “The ‘Kurdish Question’.”
56 Tufekci, “Pepper Spray and Penguins”; Cengiz, “Welcome to Post-Gezi Turkey”; and Schleifer, “Turkey: Amnesty International Researcher.”
57 Gumustekin, “Gezi Protests and Social Mobilization.”
58 Ozcelik, “What the HDP Success Means for Turkey.”
59 Nissenbaum and Peker, “Turkey’s Ruling AKP Regains.”