Why is the presidential system desirable?
As is known to all, the issue of a presidential system was not on the agenda during the early years of Justice and Development Party (AK Party) rule. When the AK Party government undermined the military tutelage, it made sure that the country would automatically head toward a democratic future and this would positively contribute to its vote. However, it was understood in a short time that this was a rather naive expectation. The attenuation of the military brought the judiciary forward as the status quo power. The pluralist structure that was aimed for in the judiciary was hampered by the combined efforts of the Republican People's Party (CHP) and the Constitutional Court. After achieving full domination over the higher judiciary with the judicial election, the Gülen Movement attempted to drive a hard bargain with the government. The fact that the AK Party leadership was content with having a limited number of parliamentarians from the Gülen Movement marked the beginning of a new war. This was followed by the arrest of the head of the National Intelligence Organization (MİT), Hakan Fidan, in Feb. 7, 2012, and the attempt to present the former Prime Minister and current President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as a "terrorist ringleader" with the Dec. 17 and Dec. 25, 2013 operations.
Within this period of time, another tension was experienced regarding the matter of presidential election, when the Constitutional Court and the CHP joined hands one more time to prevent Abdullah Gül from being elected president in 2007. The Constitutional Court stipulated a quorum of 367 Parliamentarians to elect the president, and this figure corresponded to the vote of two-thirds of Parliamentarians rather than the absolute majority vote. However, neither had such a practice, nor a legal consideration of this kind had been heard of until then. The AK Party's political response to this was to hold a referendum on the presidential election and approximately 80 percent of the population voted for the proposal that the president would be elected by popular vote.
Even with the emergence of this opportunity, we cannot clearly see the AK Party's proposal for the presidential system in its election declarations. The AK Party gradually reached this conclusion as a result of political evaluations. Even after the judiciary and military were relatively overwhelmed in 2010, the AK Party government understood that it was not that easy to overcome civil bureaucracy, and many of the party's decisions could not be put into practice. The bureaucracy continued to resist the AK Party and it was realized at this point that the Gülen community had intermingled with the classical bureaucratic propensity to become a mafia.
In short, when it came to mid-2014, there emerged a much clearer picture in the mind of the AK Party leadership. There was a bureaucracy which continuously resisted it and was willing to take part in political coalitions at every opportunity. It seemed impossible to be a government in the real sense without subverting this bureaucratic resistance. On the other hand, pushing the bureaucracy onto legitimate ground was only possible with the synergy of civil politics. If the AK Party and the CHP had defended the principal superiority of civil politics together, it would have been possible to reform the system within the current structure. However, the CHP made its position clear and revealed that its aim was to overthrow the AK Party government anyway, rather than defending civil politics.
Consequently, it was not possible to free politics from the bureaucracy in the short term. The solution was to "bypass" the bureaucracy and to change the administration system to this end. With this understanding, the presidential system gained a different functional meaning. While Erdoğan defends this change, he prioritizes service and the need for a faster and more effective administration. But we know what prevents them... The AK Party aims to usher in a new and irreversible age by preventing mild coup attempts, which bring together (parallel) structures within the state with the opposition parties, and which abuse the judiciary for this purpose. The presidential system is not a philosophical choice, but it is the point where the course of Turkish politics has brought the AK Party.
Within this period of time, another tension was experienced regarding the matter of presidential election, when the Constitutional Court and the CHP joined hands one more time to prevent Abdullah Gül from being elected president in 2007. The Constitutional Court stipulated a quorum of 367 Parliamentarians to elect the president, and this figure corresponded to the vote of two-thirds of Parliamentarians rather than the absolute majority vote. However, neither had such a practice, nor a legal consideration of this kind had been heard of until then. The AK Party's political response to this was to hold a referendum on the presidential election and approximately 80 percent of the population voted for the proposal that the president would be elected by popular vote.
Even with the emergence of this opportunity, we cannot clearly see the AK Party's proposal for the presidential system in its election declarations. The AK Party gradually reached this conclusion as a result of political evaluations. Even after the judiciary and military were relatively overwhelmed in 2010, the AK Party government understood that it was not that easy to overcome civil bureaucracy, and many of the party's decisions could not be put into practice. The bureaucracy continued to resist the AK Party and it was realized at this point that the Gülen community had intermingled with the classical bureaucratic propensity to become a mafia.
In short, when it came to mid-2014, there emerged a much clearer picture in the mind of the AK Party leadership. There was a bureaucracy which continuously resisted it and was willing to take part in political coalitions at every opportunity. It seemed impossible to be a government in the real sense without subverting this bureaucratic resistance. On the other hand, pushing the bureaucracy onto legitimate ground was only possible with the synergy of civil politics. If the AK Party and the CHP had defended the principal superiority of civil politics together, it would have been possible to reform the system within the current structure. However, the CHP made its position clear and revealed that its aim was to overthrow the AK Party government anyway, rather than defending civil politics.
Consequently, it was not possible to free politics from the bureaucracy in the short term. The solution was to "bypass" the bureaucracy and to change the administration system to this end. With this understanding, the presidential system gained a different functional meaning. While Erdoğan defends this change, he prioritizes service and the need for a faster and more effective administration. But we know what prevents them... The AK Party aims to usher in a new and irreversible age by preventing mild coup attempts, which bring together (parallel) structures within the state with the opposition parties, and which abuse the judiciary for this purpose. The presidential system is not a philosophical choice, but it is the point where the course of Turkish politics has brought the AK Party.
Last Update: March 20, 2015 21:30