CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020
| Author | Camur, Ecem Lara |
|---|---|
| Title | Changing the Combination of Authoritarian Stability Strategies Against Threats: Turkey (2002-2019) |
| Summary | The empirical research suggests that authoritarian stability strategies of legitimation, co-optation, and repression strengthen regimes in combination. Existing studies treat these strategies mostly as independent variables, looking at their effect on political survival. Consequently, there is a research gap on the motivations and political conflict behind why these regimes follow different combinations of strategies over and time. Deriving from this gap, the thesis tries to answer the following questions: Why do some hybrid regimes change the combination of stability strategies? Why is there a change through the introduction of a strategy towards a new combination? The thesis argues that the threats coming from the masses (vertical threats), the ruling elite, and opposition parties (horizontal threats) affect the survival strategies of hybrid regimes differently. Turkey, as a hybrid regime, is analyzed between 2002-2019 throughout three periods. The findings of the analysis are the following. 1) The combination of the stability strategies is subject to change when the incumbent is challenged by the new horizontal and/or vertical threats. 2) The horizontal threat by the ruling elites leads to the introduction of hard repression and diffuse legitimation strategy towards the ruling elite and the opposition. 3) The horizontal threat by the united opposition leads to the introduction of formal co-optation strategy towards the opposition parties. 4) The vertical threat by the citizens leads to the introduction of diffuse legitimation and hard repression strategy towards the opposition. Overall the thesis shows that vertical and horizontal threats change the way hybrid regimes try to stabilize their rule. In this sense, the thesis suggests scholars and policymakers focus on the dynamic and adaptive nature of the grey zone regimes. |
| Supervisor | Melnykovska, Inna |
| Department | Political Science MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2020/camur_ecem-lara.pdf |
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