Phase 1 (February-September 2017):
In the first, initial phase of the project preparatory activities were taken.
Organizational activities:
- Preparation of the project’s website
- Recruitment of the first PhD student – scholarship holder – who is to participate in the project
Research activities:
- Working out the conceptualization of the research – thanks to the collected literature on the electoral malpractice, available in Poland, the terminology and theoretical framework was worked out, taking critical approach to the key typology of the electoral manipulations presented by S. Birch [2012].
- Starting the empirical analysis of the case of Turkey – on the basis of the literature available in Poland the questions of political regime, political system and political culture were analyzed as well as how the institution of elections has become a part of these phenomena.
- Starting the research on the issue of the electoral malpractices in Turkey – through the identification and defining the important types of electoral manipulations as well as their mapping with reference to particular elections (building a kind of data base).
- Starting the analysis of the Electoral Integrity Project surveys and reports of such organizations as ODIHR to select the cases for the comparative research.
Results of these research activities were presented:
1.During the conference „Turkey at Critical Crossroads: Dynamic Trajectories For Society, Politics and Culture” which took place in Lisbon on 1-3 February 2017 (organizer – University of Lisbon). Prof. Adam Szymański presented the paper Elections in Turkey. Chasing After the “Cat’, prepared by him and Jakub Wódka, PhD.
For more, see:
http://ioriente.iscsp.utl.pt/en/events/item/2904-turkey-at-critical-crossroads-dynamic-trajectories-for-society-politcs-and-culture
2. During the conference of the International Political Science Association (IPSA) “Democratization and Constitutional Design in Divided Societies”,” which took place at the University of Cyprus in Nicosia on 24-27 June 2017 (organizer – IPSA Research Committees 13, 14 and 28). Prof. Adam Szymański presented the paper Competitiveness of Elections in Turkey – The Case of Minorities.
For more, see:
https://ipsacolloquium2017.wordpress.com/conference-programme/
3. During the 47. UACES annual conference, which took place at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków on 4-6 September 2017. Prof. Adam Szymański (photo on the right) presented the paper De-democratization of Turkey and Central and Eastern Europe – The Case of Elections, prepared together with Jakub Wodka, PhD i Wojciech Ufel, MA.
For more, see:
http://www.uaces.org/documents/events/programmes/krakow_research.pdf
4. In the article Manipulation of the Voter – Impediment to the Electoral Integrity in Turkey? Was prepared by Prof. Adam Szymański and Jakub Wódka, PhD. It was accepted by “Przegląd Politologiczny”, no. 3, 2017 (published in October 2017 – for more, see in the part Results).
Phase 2 (October 2017 – October 2018)
Organizational activities:
- Recruitment of the second PhD student – scholarship holder – who is to participate in the project.
- Issuing a letter to the Rector of the University (October 2018) requesting the extension of the project for 12 months – due to very important substantive reasons – first of all snap elections in Turkey in June 2018.
Research activities:
- Preparation of the list of questions for interviews to be conducted in Turkey by the principle investigator and the co-investigator.
- Further analysis of electoral malpractices in Turkey and starting the analysis of the selected comparative cases – Central Europe, Balkans and Latin America.
- Participation of Prof. Adam Szymański oraz Wojciech Ufel, MA, in 6. Polish Political Science Yearbook International Seminar „The Future of Electoral Systems”, on 5 December 2017 in Toruń. The members of the project presented a paper Beyond vote rigging: common patterns in electoral malpractices in de-democratizing regimes, which in the form of the article was published in PPSY, no.4/2018 (for more, see Results).
For more, see:
4. Conducting seven in-depth interviews by Prof. Adam Szymański on 19-23 March 2018 in Ankara and Istanbul with the following experts:
– Prof. Ömer Gençkaya.(Marmara Üniv., Istanbul)
– Prof. Ziya Öniş (Koç Üniv., Istanbul)
– Ass. Prof. Selim Erdem Aytaç (Koç Üniv., Istanbul)
– Ass. Prof. Özge Kemahlıoğlu (Sabancı Üniv, Istanbul)
– Ass. Prof. Cenk Aygül (Atılım Univ., Ankara)
– Prof. Emre Toros (Atılım Univ., Ankara)
5. Organizing on 26 June 2018 at the Faculty of Political Science and International Studies, University of Warsaw of the expert seminar with the participation the project participants (Amanda Dziubińska, MA; Prof. Adam Szymański; Wojciech Ufel, MA) as well as members of the Research group on contemporary Turkey, working at the Institute of Political Science, University of Warsaw (with Prof. Adam Szymański as the head of the group) and other experts. The seminar was aimed at presenting the project results to date on the electoral manipulations and their impact on political regimes of Turkey and other comparative cases selected so far – i.e. Hungary, Serbia and Macedonia as well as at consulting the results with experts. Their valuable comments and questions enable to prepare the final publication even better.
Participants (affiliation at given time in brackets): Artur Adamczyk, PhD (University of Warsaw), Karol Bieniek, PhD (KEN Pedagogical University, Kraków), Joanna Bocheńska, PhD (Jagiellonian University), Amanda Dziubińska, MA (University of Warsaw), Karol Kaczorowski, PhD (Jagiellonian University), Anna Solarz, PhD (University of Warsaw), Özgür Soner, MA (University of Warsaw), Prof. Adam Szymański (University of Warsaw), Wojciech Ufel, MA (University of Wroclaw), Karol Wasilewski, MA (Polish Institute of International Affairs), Prof. Jacek Wojnicki (University of Warsaw).
6. Participation of Adam Szymanski in the 25th World Congress of Political Science in Brisbane (Australia) on 21-25 July 2018. He presented the paper Beyond vote rigging: common patterns in electoral malpractices in de-democratizing regimes, in which he outlined the research results to date within the project.
Details:
Panel title: Democratization in Europe and Middle East
Chairs: Simon Adetona Akindes (University of Wisconsin), Bartłomiej Zdaniuk (University of Warsaw)
Discussants: Nataliya Muzyka (University of Edinburgh)
Kai-Ping Huang (National Taiwan University)
Papers:
Beyond vote rigging: common patterns in electoral malpractices in de-democratizing regimes – Adam Szymański (University of Warsaw)
Poland at the Crosswords – Mechanisms of Politicizing Civic Sector – Agnieszka Bejma (University of Warsaw)
The Electoral Reform. A Tool of Peace Consolidation in Divided Societies – Rana Abo Amra (Cairo University)
Will Elite Settlements Transform into Elite Convergence for Democracy to Consolidate in Tunisia? – Mohamed Nejib Gorgi (La Trobe University, Australia)
7. Organizing on 19 September 2018 within the Fourth Polish Political Science Congress a panel „Electoral Manipulations and Their Impact on the Political Regimes of Contemporary States”, which was aimed at presenting the research results to date and in which participants of the project took part. Details below:
Phase 3 (November 2018 – January 2020)
Organizational activities:
- Submitting the monograph proposal, which includes the final results of the project to the Peter Lang publishing house (December 2018).
- Submitting the first full version of the manuscript to the Peter Lang publishing house. (November 2019).
Research activities:
- Presenting the research results to date by Jakub Wódka, PhD, during the academic meeting of the European Studies Department of the Institute of Political Studies, Polish Academy of Science, on 29 January 2019. The paper was entitled Between Fair and Rigged. Elections in Turkey.
- Conducting the in-depth interviews by Jakuba Wódka, PhD and i Adam Szymański, PhD habil. on 13-17 May 2019 in Istanbul – with the following experts: Gürkan Özturan (web portal dokuz8haber); Tuğce Erçetin (Barış için akademisyenler); Dr Esra Atuk (Galatasaray University, Istanbul); Prof. Ziya Öniş (Koç Üniv., Istanbul) and Selim Erdem Aytaç, PhD (Koç Üniv., Istanbul).
- Participation of Adam Szymański, PhD habil. in IPSA Colloquium, Diversity and Democratic Governance: Legacies of the Past, Present Challenges, and Future Directions on 12-15 June 2019 in Sarajevo – the international conference organized by IPSA RC13, 14, 28, 44 and 50. During this conference he presented a paper entitled Majoritarianism as Challenge for Democratic Governance –Turkey in Comparative Perspective.
4. Participation of Adam Szymański, Phd habil and Wojciech Ufel, MA in the ECPR General Conference in Wrocław on 4-7 September 2019. Adam Szymański presented the current results of the project in the paper entitled Electoral Malpractices in Turkey and Their Impact on Political Regime, within his panel „Elections in Southern Europe – Still Democratic? Turkey in Comparative Perspective”.
5. Organization of the consultation meeting with the Turkish experts – Selim Erdem Aytaç, PhD (Koç Üniv., Stambuł) and Prof. Emre Toros (Haceteppe Üniv, Ankara), doing research on the Turkish elections and electoral malpractices, on 3 December 2019 in Collegium Politicum, University of Warsaw. This meeting, concluding the project, was devoted in the first part to the presentation of results of the research by all four members of the project team. In the second part comments were given by the Turkish guests.