Electoral Behavior In Civil Wars: The Kurdish Conflict In Turkey

Abstract

This study analyzes the effects of political violence on electoral behavior by focusing on one of the longest lasting ethnic conflicts in contemporary times, the Kurdish insurgency in Turkey. How do armed conflict and electoral institutions shape turnout in a civil war context? Building on an original dataset at the sub-national level, the study reaches two major conclusions. First, it shows rural displacement caused by political violence led to lower levels of turnout and severely hampered access to voting controlling for a wide range of socioeconomic and electoral system variables. Second, an unusually high electoral threshold aggravated this pattern of disenfranchisement and limited the avenues of nonviolent Kurdish political activism with negative implications for the resolution of the conflict.

Publication Date

1-1-2015

Publication Title

Civil Wars

Volume

17

Issue

1

Number of Pages

70-88

Document Type

Article

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.1080/13698249.2015.1059565

Socpus ID

84941622021 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/84941622021

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