Authoritarian Tendencies versus Democratization: Evidence from Turkey

Democracy means much more than elections and institutions. At its most basic level, it is predicated on the diffusion of power within government and society. In a democratic regime, power is shared among different branches to ensure that no one branch becomes too powerful. Checks and balances are necessary to prevent the accumulation of power and to ensure healthy competition among the legislative and executive branches and an independent judiciary. In this context, the government is accustomed to the presence of an opposition and government leaders are conscious that they enjoy a temporary hold on power. However, a democracy also requires that power be distributed among civil society, the media, trade unions and other institutions to ensure that they are independent of state control. In this context, all ethnic and religious groups, genders or social classes are included in political life because democracy requires all members of society to have individual and political rights and it requires the protection of those rights (Haass, 2003, pp. 139–140).