What did they promise for democracy and what did they deliver?: The AKP and the CHP 2002–11 [2]

Abstract

There is a general, possibly global, cynicism about the incongruence between the pre-election promises and post-election behavior of political parties. This chapter explores the validity of this belief in the Turkish case by analyzing the words and deeds of two political parties, namely the AKP (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, Justice and Development Party) and the CHP (Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi, Republican People’s Party). More specifically, it analyzes the level of congruence between the two parties’ democratization-related election pledges and their subsequent legislative actions in the period between 2002 and 2011. © 2014 Carmen Rodríguez, Antonio Ávalos, Hakan Yılmaz and Ana I. Planet.