Must the Dominant-Party System End by Corruption? A Comparative Analysis of the Italian Experience and the Turkish Case

The dominant-party system constitutes an uncommon category in the classification party systems. The definition given in the manuals of political science underlines two basic criteria of the dominant-party systems. Firstly, it is necessary to have a competitive struggle at least between two parties. Secondly, the political system should be dominated by a single major party that stays in power for a long period. The Liberal Democrat Party government in Japan, the Congress Party in India and the Christian Democrats in Italy are commonly used examples of the dominant-party system. The case of the Justice and Development Party which holds governmental power in Turkey since the elections of 2002 has also started to constitute an interesting example of dominant-party system. The first prominent feature of a dominant-party system is the fact that the party in power commonly represents a coalition of different groups. It means that the competition between political parties shifts to a factional conflict within the dominant party itself. These factional conflicts sometimes create important political issues. The recent developments in the Turkish political arena represent how these factional conflicts create an instable political environment. The second feature of this system is the tendency for the erosion of constitutional distinction between the state and the party in power. This situation can result the dominance of all state apparatus by dominant-party, which means the end of separation of powers. Again the Turkish case draws attention in the last days. The third feature is largely related to the second one. The omnipotent presence of the dominant-party makes impossible all of the check and balance system. The opposition becomes or is pushed to become weak and ineffective. The complacency, arrogance and even corruption derive from this omnipotent position. In the majority of cases, the corruption plays an important role in the loss of power. This paper aims to analyse the correlation between the dominant-party system and the corruption and to demonstrate how the dominant-party system weaken the democracy. The paper will study two examples from a comparative perspective to concretize theoretical claims. Italy case will be studied as an historical example from the Mediterranean region. The second case will be the Justice and Development Party in Turkey. The three features cited below will be studied to explain through these two cases how the dominant-party system itself prepares its end.