Master Thesis Defense: Ahmet Arkın
Issue Ownership in Turkish Politics
Ahmet Arkın
Political Science, MA Thesis, 2015
Thesis Jury
Ersin Kalaycıoğlu (Thesis Supervisor), Özge Kemahlıoğlu, Ali Çarkoğlu
Date &Time: August,5th 2015 – 13:00
Place: FASS 2023
Abstract
Literature on Turkish politics includes diverse studies of socio-economic cleavages and its
effects on voting behavior. However, researchers rarely study the impact of those
cleavages on political parties’ policies and communication. The issue ownership theory is
a trending field of study in the West for the last two decades. This theory argues that
deep-rooted attributions to parties not only affect the parties’ perception by voters, but it
also affects how parties prepare their policies and communicate themselves. This paper
serves as an introduction of issue ownership theory to Turkish politics and my findings
suggest that issue ownership patterns are prevalent in Turkish politics, performance
issues being more effective in shaping voter behavior than long-term issue ownerships.
Long-term issue ownerships help parties to position themselves on different issues, and
present themselves to the public during election campaigns. Issue salience, since it is
related to performance issues, seems to be effective in determining the voters’ party
preferences, as well as a part of parties’ discourses. Further research on all aspects of
issue ownership theory in Turkey would enable us to understand voting behavior and
party politics better.