POLS Seminar: “Long-term Clientelistic Interactions between Politicians and Voters: Political Persuasion and Preference Change in Turkey”, Kerem Yıldırım, 12:30Noon May 25 (EN)

Talk:

“Long-term Clientelistic Interactions between Politicians and Voters: Political Persuasion and Preference Change in Turkey”

by Asst. Prof. Kerem Yıldırım, Department of Political Science and Public Administration, Kadir Has University

kyildirim@ku.edu.tr

Abstract: Clientelism represents a distinctive type of politician-voter linkage wherein voters may materially rely on politicians and parties. The nature of this dependency is, in part, determined by the form of clientelistic interaction. This book project undertakes the task of conceptualizing potential outcomes arising from long-term interactions between politicians and voters. The central argument posits that with long-term clientelism, voters not only behaviorally conform to political demands originating from politicians and parties, but their evaluations of various policy issues also align with the party’s programmatic platform and ideological stance. To construct this analytical framework, the book introduces the Turkish context and formulates a theory proposing alternative mechanisms for the consequences of long-term clientelism. Subsequently, in order to assess these expectations, the book employs extensive empirical examinations, employing representative surveys from Turkey, conducting comparative fieldwork in two working-class neighborhoods of İstanbul, and utilizing cross-national data and survey experiments. During this presentation, preliminary findings from an ongoing cross-national expert survey (DALP 2) will also be unveiled for the first time. The empirical results support the contention that sustained clientelistic interactions effectively persuade recipients to embrace the party’s policy platform, particularly regarding salient policy issues.

Author bio: Kerem Yıldırım (Ph.D., 2016 Koç University) is an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science and Public Administration at Kadir Has University. He is currently the PI of a project titled “Local Government Accountability, Administrative Capacity, and Voting Behavior,” which deals with local governments in Turkey. He is also a research associate for a cross-national project titled Democratic Accountability and Linkages Project (DALP 2). His research interests include Party Politics, Competition and Accountability, Voting Behavior, and Party-Voter Linkages, and his research primarily deals with the Turkish case from a comparative perspective. His previous research has been published in journals such as Political Behavior, Political Communication, Democratization, South European Society and Politics, and Turkish Studies.
Room Info: A-130

Thursday, May 25, 2023, 12:30 p.m.