{"title":"Religion and regional voting behaviour differences in Turkey, 2007–2018: a study of the AKP electoral base","authors":"Fırat Gündem","doi":"10.1080/14683857.2022.2129151","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT With the Justice and Development Party dominating the elections in Turkey since 2002, the existing political cleavages between religious and secular segments of the population increasingly crystallized during the last two decades. This article investigates the mass support for the AKP at a juncture of religious activities and voting behaviour. To contextualize religious activities, this study utilizes a unique data set consisting of the indicators of religious activities collected from the Directorate of Religious Affairs at the province level between the general elections in Turkey. The findings show a significant relationship between all religious activities and voting for the Justice and Development Party nationwide. However, the relationship between voting behaviour and religious activities mitigates when considering regional differences. Results imply three different spatial cleavages in western, internal, and eastern regions, where the relationship between voting behaviour and the types of religious activities, as well as demographic variables, varies significantly.","PeriodicalId":51736,"journal":{"name":"Southeast European and Black Sea Studies","volume":"23 1","pages":"631 - 656"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8000,"publicationDate":"2022-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Southeast European and Black Sea Studies","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14683857.2022.2129151","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"AREA STUDIES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
ABSTRACT With the Justice and Development Party dominating the elections in Turkey since 2002, the existing political cleavages between religious and secular segments of the population increasingly crystallized during the last two decades. This article investigates the mass support for the AKP at a juncture of religious activities and voting behaviour. To contextualize religious activities, this study utilizes a unique data set consisting of the indicators of religious activities collected from the Directorate of Religious Affairs at the province level between the general elections in Turkey. The findings show a significant relationship between all religious activities and voting for the Justice and Development Party nationwide. However, the relationship between voting behaviour and religious activities mitigates when considering regional differences. Results imply three different spatial cleavages in western, internal, and eastern regions, where the relationship between voting behaviour and the types of religious activities, as well as demographic variables, varies significantly.
自2002年以来,正义与发展党在土耳其的选举中占据主导地位,在过去的20年里,宗教和世俗人口之间存在的政治分歧日益明确。本文调查了在宗教活动和投票行为的结合点上对正义与发展党的群众支持。为了了解宗教活动的背景,本研究使用了一套独特的数据集,其中包括从土耳其大选期间省一级宗教事务局收集的宗教活动指标。调查结果显示,所有宗教活动与全国范围内正义与发展党(Justice and Development Party)的选票之间存在显著关系。然而,考虑到区域差异,投票行为和宗教活动之间的关系有所缓和。结果表明,在西部、内部和东部地区存在三种不同的空间分裂,在这些地区,投票行为与宗教活动类型以及人口变量之间的关系差异很大。
期刊介绍:
The aim of the journal is to establish a line of communication with these regions of Europe. Previously isolated from the European mainstream, the Balkan and Black Sea regions are in need of serious comparative study as are the individual countries, no longer "at the edge" of Europe. The principal disciplines covered by the journal are politics, political economy, international relations and modern history; other disciplinary approaches are accepted as appropriate. The journal will take both an academic and also a more practical policy-oriented approach and hopes to compensate for the serious information deficit on the countries under consideration.