Political Science

It is a fact each state is characterized by uniqueness in politics, economic and socio-cultural way of life. The gravity of the situation is that it is through these that the destiny of the citizen is shaped to a vast extent. Given that politics is very pervasive, totally permeating all the spheres of life, it is very dynamic since it is also characterized by the need to seize and consolidate power. It is against this backdrop that the data presented above about Israel 2009 and Turkey 2002 parliamentary elections vary to a great extent, at least statistically. Nevertheless, it is an indisputable fact that behind the statistical differences between 2009 and Turkey 2002 parliamentary elections, there are underpinnings of the political systems being used by the two countries. The data is therefore interpreted using this reality.

The Striking Features in the Comparison
It is important to note that according to the statistics presented, there is a great disparity between the numbers of votes and the between the political parties in Turkey, as opposed to Israel. It is a fact that for instance, the Justice and Development Party can be said without any controversy to have bagged the most votes (10,762,131). By this virtue, the Justice and Development Party garnered the majority of seats in parliament, and thus, becoming the most dominant party in parliament. Following the Justice and Development Party, is the Republican Peoples Party which is seen to have bagged 6,090,883 votes. As a corollary to this, the Republican Peoples Party is seen to have won for itself, 178 seats in parliament.

In respect to the above, Turkey is seen to play a bicameral or two party parliamentary system, but in a de facto sense not in regard to the Turkey constitution. In this regard, there may be two dominant parties in terms of the seats each command in parliament- Justice and Development Party and Republican Peoples Party, respectively. There may however be small parties extant in Turkish political spectrum. Examples to these are True path party the Nationalist Movement Party, the Youth Party Democratic Party the Democratic Peoples Party and the Motherland Party. Usually, these small parties may enter alliances with one of the dominant parties, or root for a position taken by one of the dominant parties. This is typical of Australian politics.

On the other hand, the scenario is different when Israel is factored. The issue of the dominant party is neither here nor there. On the contrary, the space range with which the political parties out-garnered one another in the number of votes and seats is very closely spaced not exceeding 2 seats. This is because Israeli parliament, the Knesset is not a bicameral one as Turkeys, but a unicameral one. It is against this backdrop that even the smaller parties such as Yisrael Beiteinu, Labor Party, Shas, United Torah, National Union, New Movement, The Jewish Home and the Balad have seats in the Knesset. On the other hand, the Israeli nature of politics is more permissive than that of Turkeys. Israeli unicameral parliamentary system, and as such, allows for the incursion of many political parties.

Explaining the Features and the Disparity
From the above standpoint, it is easy to explain the disparity between the Israel 2009 and Turkey 2002 parliamentary elections. In the first place, there are socio-political underpinnings which dictate the realization of the above results. For instance, it is a fact that Turkey is a larger country, both geographically and demographically. Whereas Turkey enjoys a total population of about 75 million, Israel has that of 7.5 million- almost a half of Turkeys population. Again, as Israel boasts of a total area of 22,072 square kilometers, Turkey has a total area of 783,562 square kilometers.

It would therefore be logical that the parties in Turkey would realize greater number of votes, compared to Israeli political parties. This is also given the fact that Turkey had fewer political parties about seven, going by the statistical provision, compared to the state of Israel which is depicted as having more parties 14 according to the data presented. It is obvious that political parties in Israel are twice as much as those in Turkey.  It would therefore be only logical if the political parties in Israel on average, garnered vote about ten times less than those in Turkey.

As suffrologists would have it, would be statistically anachronistic for one of the political parties in Israel to attain votes which would near those of the Turkish political parties by a half or more. For instance, given that the total demography of Turkey is about ten times higher than that of Israel, it is only fit that the Justice and Development Party as Turkeys top notch political party, have votes about ten times higher than that of Kadima, as Israels leading political party. The same trend should remain consistent for the moderate political parties and the little political parties. It is a fact that suffrologists take any deviation from the demographic trends as explained above as clear indicators of rigging and other forms of electoral irregularities.