On the Relations Between the President and the Political Party

This paper will focus on one of Turkey’s most debated topics based on the problem of its governmental system, namely the political party membership of the president. By this, firstly, Turkey’s near past, during which the president has been a member of a political party, will be briefly addressed. Following this, a general framework regarding the three democratic systems of government will be drawn; parliamentary, presidential, and semi-presidential systems. In this sense, the president-party relations in those systems will be elaborated as well. Finally, two semi-presidential examples will be addressed due to the fact that the phenomenon of a president, who is a member of a political party, is most effective in a semi-presidential system –until detailed works on Turkey’s current presidential system will be published