How Informal Institutions Matter: Evidence from Turkish Social and Political Spheres

by Zeki Sarigil

Overview

In How Informal Institutions Matter, Zeki Sarigil examines the role of informal institutions in sociopolitical life and addresses the following questions: Why and how do informal institutions emerge? To ask this differently, why do agents still create or resort to informal institutions despite the presence of formal institutional rules and regulations? How do informal institutions matter? What roles do they play in sociopolitical life? How can we classify informal institutions? What novel types of informal institutions can we identify and explain? How do informal institutions interact with formal institutions? How do they shape formal institutional rules, mechanisms, and outcomes? Finally, how do existing informal institutions change? What factors might trigger informal institutional change? In order to answer these questions, Sarigil examines several empirical cases of informal institution as derived from various issue areas in the Turkish sociopolitical context (i.e., civil law, conflict resolution, minority rights, and local governance) and from multiple levels (i.e., national and local).

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780472056385
Publisher:	University of Michigan Press
Publication date:	09/19/2023
Pages:	216
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Zeki Sarigil is Associate Professor of Political Science at Bilkent University.

Table of Contents

LIST OF FIGURES
LIST OF TABLES
APPENDICES
PREFACE
The Importance of Informal Institutions and Norms
The Contributions of this Book
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Chapter 1: Introduction
Definition of Key Terms
Methodological Approach
A Summary of the Arguments
Organization of the Book
CHAPTER 2: CONCEPTUAL AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
The Existing Typological Accounts
The Limitations of Two-dimensional Typologies
An Alternative Typology of Informal Institutions
The Rise of Informal Institutions
Informal Institutional Change
Conclusion
Chapter 3: A Symbiotic Informal Institution: Religious Marriage (Dini Nikah) in Turkey
Data Sources
Informal Religious Marriage in Turkey
The Popularity and Rationale of Religious Marriage
The Symbiosis
Other Possible Motivations for Religious Marriage
Multivariate Analyses
Hypotheses
Variables and Measurement
Results
‘Religionizing’ Formal Civil Marriage
Conclusions and Implications
CHAPTER 4: A SUPERSEDING INFORMAL INSTITUTION: CEM COURTS
The Alevi Community in Turkey
Cem Courts
Why Non-State, Informal Courts?
Still an Option?
From Oblivion to Revival
Conclusions and Implications
CHAPTER 5: A LAYERED INFORMAL INSTITUTION: RELIGIOUS MINORITY HOLIDAYS IN TURKEY
Religious Minorities in Turkey
Non-Muslim Religious Minorities
State Attitude towards Non-Muslim Minorities
Official Regulation of Religious Holidays in Turkey
Religious Minority Holidays in Turkey
Non-Muslim Minority Holidays (Christmas and Easter)
Muslim Minority Holidays (Day of Ashura and Gadir Hum)
State Attitude towards Religious Minority Holidays: De Facto Recognition and Accommodation
Conclusions and Implications
CHAPTER 6: A SUBVERSIVE INFORMAL INSTITUTION: ‘MULTILINGUAL MUNICIPALISM’ OF THE KURDISH MOVEMENT
The Turkish State’s Attitudes and Policies towards Minority Languages
The Kurdish Ethnopolitical Movement in Turkey
Multilingual Municipalism (Çok Dilli Belediyecilik)
State Response to Multilingual Local Governance
Conclusions and Implications
CHAPTER 7: CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS
Implications
Future Research
BIBLIOGRAPHY
 

Editorial Reviews

From a leading political scientist on Turkey, this book makes a welcome intervention into studies of how informal rules and understandings shape political behavior outside of formal governance institutions. Zeki Sarigil's analysis is theoretically innovative and empirically rich, unpacking the power of the ‘unwritten’ in sociopolitical life with important insights for Turkey scholars and beyond.”
—Lisel Hintz, Johns Hopkins University

Lisel Hintz

Sarigil successfully builds upon the existing theories of informal institutions, incorporating the important dynamic of social and cultural legitimacy, and weaving this formulation together with vivid and informative examples from the Turkish case. In so doing, he also contributes richly to our understanding of minority communities in Turkey.”
—Michael Wuthrich, University of Kansas

Michael Wuthrich

This book proposes new categories of informal institutions, based on integrating the dimension of legitimacy of formal institutions, and therefore expanding previous existing categories. This is original, stimulating, groundbreaking work.”
—Elise Massicard, Sciences Po

Elise Massicard