Ideological Dimension of Party Political Space of Modern Turkey

The article is devoted to ideological issues in the Turkish party system in the context of the electoral process. The authors analyze the internal content and principles of ideological platforms of the leading parties in Turkey. The formal analysis of party programs allowed to determine the value of the ideology for the functioning of the parties. Besides, analysis of the results of opinion polls conducted by the Turkish public opinion research centers revealed the functionality of ideology in the context of election campaigns. The object of the study was the ideologies of 4 major political parties of Turkey, which entered National Parliament after elections in November 2015. These are conservative Justice and Development Party, the center-left Republican People’s Party, the National Movement Party, the Democratic Party of peoples. Analysis of party programs and other official documents showed that all four parties clearly define their ideological identity and political position. However, despite the clarity of such ideological identification, analysis of the last two election campaigns in Turkey revealed a trend among major parties to refuse from the traditional ideological rhetoric and to practice populist methods of voters attracting. The paper discloses the contents of the political stratification of Turkish society, depending on the ideological preferences of representatives of various social groups. Causative factors of ideological discourse rise are considered in the context of inter-party competition of leading political forces of the Turkish Republic. A comparative analysis shows that the Republican People’s Party and the Nationalist Movement Party are both doctrinal with distinct ideological postulates that have a national base. In contrast, the Justice and Development Party, as well as the People’s Democratic Party are more pragmatic and charismatic at the same time