Turkish Elections, 1946 and 1950: A Study of Regime Change through Voter Mobilization

The 1946 and 1950 elections in T & uuml;rkiye were the first to be organized among several political parties. This article examines the role of these elections in the subsequent regime change. Beyond their results, these elections are also analyzed as a social fact, both as a concrete operation and as a pivotal movement and call for mobilization. This paper shows that the Democratic Party, an opposition party founded in 1946, played a major role in this first acculturation to electoral politics by using elections to impose fair competition and mobilize voters.