Determinants of Party Formation and A Typology of New Political Parties in Turkey (2002-2024)

Party formation is a crucial topic in Turkish politics. The total number of political parties currently operating in Turkey was announced as 164 as of December 2024 (General Prosecution Office of the Supreme Court of Appeal). In Turkey, since the 2002 General Elections, with the exception of June 2015 elections, the AKP (Justice and Development Party) reached the majority of votes or seats to form the government alone, and it is claimed in the literature that the party system turned into a pre-dominant or hegemonic party system during this period. The main opposition party, the CHP (Republican People’s Party), has also remained unchanged since 2002, and it gained the support of approximately half of the voters who do not vote for the incumbent party. The stable existence of two mainstream parties in the party system and their combined control of at least 65% of the votes for this period could have enabled the two-party system to become increasingly established. However, a significant number of new political parties have been established since 2002, even with a higher pace since 2020. Considering the pre-dominant or hegemonic party system discussions in the country, observing such numbers of new parties needs an explanation. Nevertheless, the explanations in the literature regarding the formation and sustainability of these parties in Turkey seems to be limited. To better explain this phenomenon, examining the main features of the new parties may provide helpful insights. This study aims to investigate the main characteristics of the new parties by examining the political parties established in Turkey since 2002 with specific focus on their foundation process (e.g. splitter, successor or completely new parties), profile of party leaders, new parties’ participation and performance in national and local elections (or lack of it), their motivations about establishing alliances with other parties, and whether they continue political party activities or not. Relatedly, we aim to create a typology of new political parties in Turkey. Following this, the study also seeks answers to the following question: What are the determinants of the establishment of new political parties and durability of them in Turkey since 2002? Preliminary findings suggest that many of the newly formed parties since 2002 are founded mostly by male politicians, and those with prior political party experience in other parties; a considerable number of these parties cannot or do not attend general elections; and among the ones which contest in general elections, a large number of parties contest only once (and some leave the political arena in a short period of time), and may not be turning into relevant parties. These initial findings also hint the potential effects of political ambition of the politically experienced individuals and personalization of politics on the establishment of new political parties. These findings and further examination will provide additional insights about the party system in the country as well.