Title: Economic performance and political outcomes
Description: "1995 Turkish parliamentary election was held almost under the conditions of a controlled experiment.  The unique cross-section data pertaining to this election and the economic and political conditions surrounding it were utilized to study the relationship between the government=s economic performance and the vote shares of political parties.  Turkish voters are found to be myopic, not looking back beyond the election year in assessing the government=s economic performance.  A good performance is found to benefit the primary incumbent party at the expense of extremist opposition parties and a bad performance is found to benefit extremist opposition parties at the expense of the primary party in power.  The junior party in a coalition government and the centrist opposition parties appear to be unaffected by the economic conditions.  Evidence found is consistent with a strategic voting by the electorate, to diffuse power and/or to try parties and leaders that were not tried before or last tried a long time ago.  These conclusions are essentially in conformity with the literature on other countries"-- Economic Research Forum for the Arab Countries, Iran and Turkey web site.
Subjects: Elections
Places: Turkey