Political Parties and the Production of Islam-Secularism Cleavage in Turkey

Abstract

This study demonstrates how profoundly Turkey's main social clevage –Islam versus Secularism – is produced and reproduced by political parties in their attempts to form coherent sociopolitical bloc as a basis of mass support. The main purpose is to challenge the paradigm which understands social cleavages to be part of a ‘social structure’ that exists prior to political articulations. According to this standard perspective, social cleavages create the demand for political parties.