My research revolves around the two major themes of electoral accountability and political participation. I focus on how electoral accountability works through economic voting, and also study the incidence and implications of polarization, populism, and partisanship. In a second avenue of research, I am interested in the dynamics of people's decision to turn out to vote and join protests.

In addition, I have been active in doing research related to political behavior and public opinion formation in Turkey.

You can visit my Google Scholar page here.


Book
  • 2019. Why Bother? Rethinking Participation in Elections and Protests (with Susan Stokes). New York: Cambridge University Press (Studies in Comparative Politics).

Winner of the 2020 David O. Sears Book Award of the International Society of Political Psychology

Why Bother? offers and tests a new theory about participation in politics and, in particular, why people vote and join protests. It develops the idea that just as there are costs of participation in politics, there are also costs of abstention -- intrinsic and psychological, but no less real for that. See my book page for more details.


Journal Articles
  • 2022. Cognitive Political Networks: A Structural Approach to Measure Political Polarization in Multiparty Systems (with Güneş Ertan and Ali Çarkoğlu). Social Networks 68: 118-126.  Link PDF
  • 2021. An Experimental Investigation of Voter Myopia in Economic Evaluations. Electoral Studies 74: 102393. Link PDF
  • 2021. Effectiveness of Incumbent's Strategic Communication during Economic Crisis under Electoral Authoritarianism: Evidence from Turkey. American Political Science Review 115(4): 1517-1523. Link PDF
  • 2021. Terror Attacks, Issue Salience, and Party Competence: Diagnosing Shifting Vote Preferences in a Panel Study (with Ali Çarkoğlu). Party Politics 27(4): 755-766. Link PDF
  • 2021. Partisanship, Elite Messages, and Support for Populism in Power (with Ali Çarkoğlu and Ezgi Elçi). European Political Science Review 13(1): 23-39. Link PDF
  • 2020. Do Voters Respond to Relative Economic Performance? Evidence from Survey Experiments. Public Opinion Quarterly 84(2): 493-507.  Link PDF
  • 2020. Beyond Opportunity Costs: Campaign Messages, Anger, and Turnout among the Unemployed (with Eli Rau and Susan Stokes). British Journal of Political Science 50(4): 1325-1339. Link PDF
                                  Covered in The New York Times
  • 2020. Internet and Social Media Use and Political Knowledge: Evidence from Turkey (with Simge Andı and Ali Çarkoğlu). Mediterranean Politics 25(5): 579-599. Link PDF
  • 2019. Ethnicity and Religiosity-based Prejudice in Turkey: Evidence from a Survey Experiment (with Ali Çarkoğlu). International Political Science Review 40(1): 58-72. Link PDF
  • 2018. Relative Economic Performance and the Incumbent Vote: A Reference Point Theory. Journal of Politics 80(1): 16-29. Link PDF
                                  Related media: Monkey Cage
                            Scholarly dialogue: A Response to Arel-Bundock, Blais, and Dassonneville (2021)
  • 2018. Presidents Shaping Public Opinion in Parliamentary Democracies: A Survey Experiment in Turkey (with Ali Çarkoğlu). Political Behavior 40(2): 371-393. Link PDF
  • 2018. Why Do People Join Backlash Protests? Lessons from Turkey (with Luis Schiumerini and Susan Stokes). Journal of Conflict Resolution 62(6): 1205-1228.  Link PDF
  • 2017. Protests and Repression in New Democracies (with Luis Schiumerini and Susan Stokes). Perspectives on Politics. 15(1): 62-82. Link PDF
  • 2017. Taking Sides: Determinants of Support for a Presidential System in Turkey (with Ali Çarkoğlu and Kerem Yıldırım). South European Society and Politics 22(1): 1-20. Link PDF
  • 2016. Why Some Countries Are Immune from the Resource Curse: The Role of Economic Norms (with Michael Mousseau and Ömer F. Örsün). Democratization 23(1): 71-92. Link PDF
  • 2015. Who Gets Targeted for Vote-Buying? Evidence from an Augmented List Experiment in Turkey (with Ali Çarkoğlu). European Political Science Review 7(4): 547-66. Link PDF
  • 2014. Varieties of Populism in a Changing Global Context: The Divergent Paths of Erdoğan and Kirchnerismo (with Ziya Öniş). Comparative Politics 47(1): 41-59. Link PDF
  • 2014. Distributive Politics in a Multiparty System: The Conditional Cash Transfer System in Turkey. Comparative Political Studies 47(9): 1211-37. Link PDF

Book Chapters
  • 2022. Costly Abstention (with Susan Stokes). In Marco Giugni and Maria Grasso (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Political Participation. New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 763-780. Link
  • 2022. Economic Voting during the AKP Era in Turkey. In Güneş Murat Tezcür (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Turkish Politics. New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 319-340. Link PDF
  • 2022. Religiosity and Political Attitudes in Turkey during the AKP Era. In Melani Cammett and Pauline Jones (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Politics in Muslim Societies. New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 335-353. Link PDF
  • 2021. The Economic Vote in the 2018 Turkish General Election. In Ali Çarkoğlu and Ersin Kalaycıoğlu (eds.), Elections and Public Opinion in Turkey: Through the Prism of the 2018 Elections. London: Routledge, pp. 122-132. Link
  • 2021. Voter Mobilization in the 2018 Turkish General Election (with Özge Kemahlıoğlu). In Ali Çarkoğlu and Ersin Kalaycıoğlu (eds.), Elections and Public Opinion in Turkey: Through the Prism of the 2018 Elections. London: Routledge, pp. 157-168. Link
  • 2019. Populism in Turkey (with Ezgi Elçi). In Daniel Stockemer (ed.), Populism around the World: A Comparative Perspective. Cham: Springer, pp. 89-108. Link PDF
  • 2018. Political Parties and Public Policy in Turkey. In Caner Bakır and Güneş Ertan (eds.), Policy Analysis in Turkey. Bristol, UK: Policy Press, pp. 183-197. Link

Reports

Other
  • Why protest? (with Susan Stokes). Lead essay for The Wilson Quarterly Winter 2020. Link
  • Americans just set a turnout record for the midterms, voting at the highest rate since 1914. This explains why (with Susan Stokes). Monkey Cage, The Washington Post November 20, 2018. Link
  • Germany's strong economy didn't help Angela Merkel at the polls. This is why. Monkey Cage, The Washington Post November 2, 2017. Link
  • People who protest almost certainly vote (with Susan Stokes and Eli Rau). Monkey Cage, The Washington Post February 6, 2017. Link
  • Trump supporters vastly overestimate unemployment - and they blame politicians for it (with Susan Stokes and Eli Rau). Monkey Cage, The Washington Post November 2, 2016. Link
  • Donald Trump's message of fear may mobilize Americans to vote (but not necessarily for him) (with Susan Stokes). Monkey Cage, The Washington Post July 25, 2016. Link