Surviving tribes as political actors: The evolution of political clientelism in Şanlıurfa

Abstract

Tribes have been important political actors throughout the history of southeastern Turkey. What are the tools that tribe leaders still utilize to protect their scope of influence within the southeastern region of Turkey? This paper explores this question in the context of voting behavior and investigates the determinants of local tribes’ success or failure in protecting their tribal influence and political power in the southeast of Turkey. I operationalized political power in the most direct manner as local tribes’ authority over their subjects’ political party choices, for tribes can manipulate and control their members' votes to some extent in this region. By controlling the votes of tribe members, some tribe leaders have fortified their positions in the political arena. However, the degree of this fortification was threatened by recently emerging factors, especially due to modernization, within the region. A mixed methodology was used to analyze how tribes could endure to such a threat wherein 400 people were surveyed and 20 were interviewed in-depth in Şanlıurfa. In the survey analysis, education and urbanization were found as telling pivots for the downturn in the perceived political power of local tribes over individuals; whereas economic conditions were not. Through in-depth interviews, I discuss how two political actors, namely the incumbent parties and tribe leaders, reorient their political/social strategies according to the emerging factors.