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ABSTRACT
This study explores the differences in system support between the ethnic majority and ethnic minority populations in Turkey and Israel, taking into account three specific dimensions of system support: national identity, evaluation of democracy, and institutional trust. A comparison of the gaps in these dimensions is conducted using surveys. The findings show that, in both countries, the majority tends to show higher levels of system support than the minority. Among the Turkish Kurdish minority, lower levels of system support can be found across all the dimensions examined, while among the Palestinian citizens of Israel minority, the gaps are bigger in the cultural aspect of national identity but much smaller in the evaluation of democracy and institutional trust. These findings are discussed in light of both the differences between the two regimes and their dissimilar strategies for addressing ethno-national divisions and the theoretical implications of examining the multidimensionality of system support.
Acknowledgements
The author is grateful for Professor Mustafa Aydın for his helpful support in sharing the Social-Political Trends in Turkey Data.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Jabareen and Bishara, “The Jewish Nation-State Law.”
2 Solaker and Tuvan, “Erdogan Says.”
3 Ibid.
4 Oğuzlu, “The Changing Dynamics.”
5 There is an important distinction between Palestinians living in Israel proper (1949 borders), who hold formal citizenship, and Palestinians in the Occupied Territories, who do not. The choice of name for the former carries serious political import and is heavily disputed; the literature refers to them in many ways (See Amara, “Language, Identity and Conflict”). I use the term Palestinian Arab Israelis (PAI) in order to distinguish them from Palestinians in the Occupied Territories.
6 Fishman, “Elections in Israel,” and Rubin and Sarfati, The Jarring Road.
7 Ghanem, The Palestinian-Arab Minority, and Smooha, “Minority Status.”
8 Esen and Gumuscu, “Rising Competitive Authoritarianism,” and Kuzu, Multiculturalism in Turkey.
9 Gurr, “Why Minorities Rebel,” and Wimmer, Cederman, and Min, “Ethnic Politics.”
10 Fearon and Laitin, “Ethnicity, Insurgency, and Civil War.”
11 Bartusevičius and Skaaning, “Revisiting Democratic Civil Peace.”
12 Easton, A Framework; Norris, Critical Citizens; and Norris, Democratic Deficit.
13 Dowley and Silver, “Subnational and National Loyalty”; Elkins and Sides, “Can Institutions Build?”; Karakoç, “Ethnicity and Trust”; Norris, Democratic Deficit; Sahin and Akboga, “Ethnic Identity”; Staerklé et al., “Ethnic Minority-Majority Asymmetry”; and Wimmer, “Power and Pride.”
14 Horowitz, Ethnic Groups in Conflict.
15 Cederman, Wimmer, and Min, “Why Do Ethnic Groups Rebel?”, 92.
16 Wimmer, Nationalist Exclusion.
17 Fearon, “Why Do Some Civil Wars.”
18 Mylonas, The Politics of Nation-Building.
19 Wimmer, Ethnic Boundary Making.
20 See Aktürk, “Regimes of Ethnicity.”
21 Fearon and Laitin, “Ethnicity, Insurgency, and Civil War.”
22 Lijphart, “Constitutional Design,” and Lustick, Miodownik, and Eidelson, “Secessionism in Multicultural States.”
23 Bartusevičius and Skaaning, “Revisiting Democratic Civil Peace.”
24 Ibid.
25 Fearon and Laitin, “Ethnicity, Insurgency, and Civil War,” and Lijphart, “Constitutional Design.”
26 Easton, A Framework; Norris, Critical Citizens; and Norris, Democratic Deficit.
27 Levi and Stoker, “Political Trust.”
28 Elkins and Sides, “Can Institutions Build Unity?” and Wimmer, “Power and Pride.”
29 Doerschler and Jackson, “Do Muslims in Germany.”
30 Norris, Critical Citizens, and Norris, Democratic Deficit.
31 Norris, Democratic Deficit.
32 Dowley and Silver, “Subnational and National Loyalty.”
33 Smith and Kim, “National Pride.”
34 Masella, “National Identity,” and Reeskens and Wright, “Host-Country Patriotism.”
35 Staerklé et al., “Ethnic Minority-Majority.”
36 Elkins and Sides, “Can Institutions Build?”
37 Ibid.
38 Wimmer, “Power and Pride.”
39 Ibid.
40 Peleg and Waxman, “Losing Control?” 436.
41 Rubin and Sarfati, The Jarring Road.
42 Fishman, “Elections in Israel,” 175.
43 Sagnic, “Mountain Turks.”
44 Haklai, Palestinian Ethnonationalism in Israel.
45 Jabareen, “Hobbesian Citizenship.”
46 Ghanem and Rouhana, “Citizenship and the Parliamentary Politics”; Sa'di, Thorough Surveillance; and Peleg and Waxman, Israel's Palestinians.
47 Fishman, “Elections in Israel.”
48 Peleg and Waxman, “Losing Control?”
49 Kuzu, Multiculturalism in Turkey, and Peleg and Waxman, “Losing Control?”
50 Dowty, “Democracy in Israel.”
51 McHenry and Mady, “A Critique of Quantitative Measures.” See Ariely, Israel's Regime for review of the debate about Israel regime classification.
52 Smooha, “Minority Status,” 391.
53 Somer, “Understanding Turkey's Democratic Breakdown.”
54 Taskin, “Hegemonizing Conservative Democracy.”
55 Rubin and Sarfati, The Jarring Road.
56 Christofis, “The State of the Kurds.”
57 Lindberg et al., “V-Dem.”
58 Similar gaps can be found in other regime indexes such as the EIU Democracy Index or the Polity IV index.
59 Ghanem and Rouhana, “Citizenship and the Parliamentary Politics.”
60 Christofis, “The State of the Kurds.”
61 Fishman, “Elections in Israel.”
62 Kuzu, Multiculturalism in Turkey.
63 Jamal, “Israeli Arab Perspectives.”
64 Haklai, Palestinian Ethnonationalism in Israel, 173.
65 Celep, “The Moderation of Turkey's Kurdish Left.”
66 O’Connor and Baser, “Communal Violence.”
67 Christofis, “The State of the Kurds.”
68 Ghanem and Khatib, “The Nationalisation.”
69 Kook, “Representation.”
70 Fishman, “Pushing for a Political Breakthrough,” 360.
71 Ghanem and Khatib, “The Nationalisation.”
72 Jabareen and Bishara, “The Jewish Nation-State Law.”
73 Esen and Gumuscu, “Rising Competitive Authoritarianism,” and Feinstein and Ben-Eliezer, “Failed Peace.”
74 Elkins and Sides, “Can Institutions Build Unity?”
75 Ben-Porat and Yuval, Policing Citizens; Karakoç, “Ethnicity and Trust”; and Sahin and Akboga, “Ethnic Identity.”
76 Fearon and Laitin, “Ethnicity, Insurgency, and Civil War.”
77 Barak, “Studying Middle East Militaries.”
78 The range is from 1 – not at all democratic to 10 – completely democratic. A description of the data can be found in Appendix A.
79 Smooha, “Minority Status.”
80 Elkins and Sides, “Can Institutions Build Unity?” and Staerklé et al., “Ethnic Minority-Majority Asymmetry.”
81 Yiftachel, “‘Ethnocracy.’”
82 Sorek, “Arab Football.’”
83 Netanyahu, 17 March, 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2cUoglR1yk.
84 Easton, A Framework.
85 For example, Norris, Democratic Deficit.
86 For example, Wimmer “Power and Pride.”
87 Heath, Martin, and Spreckelsen, “Cross-National Comparability.”
88 Fishman, “Pushing for a Political Breakthrough,” 30.
89 Fearon and Laitin, “Ethnicity, Insurgency, and Civil War.”
90 Bartusevičius and Skaaning, “Revisiting Democratic Civil Peace.”
91 Turan, Turkey's Difficult Journey.
92 Peleg and Waxman, “Losing Control?”
93 Esen and Gumuscu, “Rising Competitive Authoritarianism,” and Feinstein and Ben-Eliezer, “Failed Peace.”
94 Jowell et al., Measuring Attitudes.
95 Karakoç, “Ethnicity and Trust.”
96 Staerklé et al., “Ethnic Minority-Majority Asymmetry.”
97 Data on sampling and methodology can be found at https://dbk.gesis.org/dbksearch/sdesc2.asp?ll=10¬abs=&af=&nf=&search=&search2=&db=e&no=5950.
98 For methodological details, see https://dbk.gesis.org/dbksearch/sdesc2.asp?ll=10¬abs=&af=&nf=&search=&search2=&db=e&no=6670.
99 Aydin et al., Quantitative Research is an annual survey of Turkish public opinion conducted by Akadametre and commissioned by Aydın, et al. on behalf of Kadir Has University Center for Turkey Studies. Relevant data was obtained from Mustafa Aydın.
100 For further details, see https://en.idi.org.il/media/12170/the-israeli-democracy-index-2018.pdf.
101 For further details, see tau.ac.il/~ines/2019.html.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Gal Ariely
Gal Ariely is professor at the Department of Politics & Government, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. He employs cross-national analysis and experimental survey research to examine political attitudes and national identity. In addition, his research addresses methodological questions of measurements across different contexts. He has authored or co-authored several articles that were published in Political Studies, Nations and Nationalism, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, and Ethnic and Racial Studies, as well as other journals. His currently studying how national days affect national identity and the Israeli regime.