Determinants of Political Confidence in a Time of Political Realignment: Religion, Economy, and Politics in Turkey

Turkish politics experienced a major political realignment in 2002, when the Justice and Development Party came to power. This essay investigates the levels of trust in political institutions at this turning point of Turkish political life and by using the 2001 World Values Survey assesses the relative impacts of religion, economics, and political performance on that trust. Empirical results show that Turkish citizens lost a great deal of confidence in political institutions during the 1990s. Statistical analysis indicates that people’s evaluation of political performance has the largest impact on political confidence, whereas religiosity has the least impact.