The political economy of Kurdish voting behavior :|the case of Istanbul's Bağcılar district

Abstract

This dissertation examines Kurdish voting behavior and shifts the focus from identity politics to class-based cleavage. It analyzes the reasons behind the Kurdish political preferences between the HDP and AKP in Bağcılar and Istanbul. With its multiresearch methodology both employing statistical methods and political ethnography, this dissertation argues that class divisions and socioeconomic differentiation among the Kurdish electorate significantly influence their voting behavior. The statistical analysis shows that as the income and education levels increase, Kurdish voters are more likely to support the HDP and less likely to support the AKP. The Kurdish poor and the most disadvantageous and precarious segments of Kurdish working-class support the AKP, whereas the relatively better-off Kurdish working class and/or upwardly-mobile Kurdish segments support the HDP. The fieldwork in Bağcılar shows that the AKP and the HDP use different types of linkages and articulations in mobilizing different Kurdish classes and class segments. Departing from the fieldwork, I argue that the AKP is a clientelistic machine-party addressing both redistribution and recognition matters for the Kurdish poor, whereas HDP is a contentious movement-party addressing grievances and relative deprivation of upwardly-mobile Kurdish segments.