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

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).

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

About the Author :
Zeki Sarigil is Associate Professor of Political Science at Bilkent University.

Review :
“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 “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 “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