Constituency service in Turkey: a survey on MPs

This paper explores some causes and the consequences of constituency service in a proportional representational system. Turkey provides an interesting case here. First, its province-size constituencies generate a significant size of personal votes for a candidate, though nominated in the party list....

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Main Author: Yasushi Hazama
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Association pour la Recherche sur le Moyen-Orient 2009-07-01
Series:European Journal of Turkish Studies
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/ejts/471
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author Yasushi Hazama
author_facet Yasushi Hazama
author_sort Yasushi Hazama
collection DOAJ
description This paper explores some causes and the consequences of constituency service in a proportional representational system. Turkey provides an interesting case here. First, its province-size constituencies generate a significant size of personal votes for a candidate, though nominated in the party list. Second, as in other non-western democracies, it is the service and allocational aspects of responsiveness that compose the most frequent demands from constituents to parliamentarians in Turkey. There exists, however, conflicting evidence regarding what priority Turkish parliamentarians give to constituency service. The analysis of the data collected through a questionnaire survey highlights several features of constituency service in Turkey. First, in terms of daily activities, parliamentarians spend for constituency service the largest part of their time at their own disposal. Second, for reelection purposes, parliamentarians consider their individual activities to be almost as important as party popularity. Third, the demand for and supply of constituency service depend on different politico-economic structures of the constituency. The smaller the constituency size, the larger will be the demand for and the supply of constituency service. The economically less developed constituencies tend to generate more demand than the more developed constituencies but do not significantly motivate the parliamentarians to provide constituency service. In addition, the Turkish parliamentarian’s turnover rate is much higher than in other democratic countries. Therefore even reelected parliamentarians have to take constituency service seriously. The statistical test shows no significant difference in the practices of constituency service between newly-elected and reelected parliamentarians.
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spelling doaj-art-fdbfff1237be4a148c4e462fcd019e4f2025-08-20T02:21:17ZengAssociation pour la Recherche sur le Moyen-OrientEuropean Journal of Turkish Studies1773-05462009-07-01310.4000/ejts.471Constituency service in Turkey: a survey on MPsYasushi HazamaThis paper explores some causes and the consequences of constituency service in a proportional representational system. Turkey provides an interesting case here. First, its province-size constituencies generate a significant size of personal votes for a candidate, though nominated in the party list. Second, as in other non-western democracies, it is the service and allocational aspects of responsiveness that compose the most frequent demands from constituents to parliamentarians in Turkey. There exists, however, conflicting evidence regarding what priority Turkish parliamentarians give to constituency service. The analysis of the data collected through a questionnaire survey highlights several features of constituency service in Turkey. First, in terms of daily activities, parliamentarians spend for constituency service the largest part of their time at their own disposal. Second, for reelection purposes, parliamentarians consider their individual activities to be almost as important as party popularity. Third, the demand for and supply of constituency service depend on different politico-economic structures of the constituency. The smaller the constituency size, the larger will be the demand for and the supply of constituency service. The economically less developed constituencies tend to generate more demand than the more developed constituencies but do not significantly motivate the parliamentarians to provide constituency service. In addition, the Turkish parliamentarian’s turnover rate is much higher than in other democratic countries. Therefore even reelected parliamentarians have to take constituency service seriously. The statistical test shows no significant difference in the practices of constituency service between newly-elected and reelected parliamentarians.https://journals.openedition.org/ejts/471parliamentMPspolitical eliteconstituency service
spellingShingle Yasushi Hazama
Constituency service in Turkey: a survey on MPs
European Journal of Turkish Studies
parliament
MPs
political elite
constituency service
title Constituency service in Turkey: a survey on MPs
title_full Constituency service in Turkey: a survey on MPs
title_fullStr Constituency service in Turkey: a survey on MPs
title_full_unstemmed Constituency service in Turkey: a survey on MPs
title_short Constituency service in Turkey: a survey on MPs
title_sort constituency service in turkey a survey on mps
topic parliament
MPs
political elite
constituency service
url https://journals.openedition.org/ejts/471
work_keys_str_mv AT yasushihazama constituencyserviceinturkeyasurveyonmps