The puzzle of exceptionalism: why is there no strong radical left party in Turkey?

Unlike their Southern European counterparts, radical left parties (RLPs) have largely failed to emerge in Turkey as an alternative to mainstream politics. To explain their weak electoral performance from the 1980s to the early 2020s, we combine demand- and supply-side perspectives, yielding four key findings. First, the capital–labour cleavage has been increasingly overshadowed by socio-cultural and territorial cleavages, undermining RLPs' labour-centred agenda. Second, RLPs that fail to adopt movement-party characteristics and incorporate new left issues perform poorly in elections. Third, the resilience of their social-democratic competitor (CHP) constrains RLPs' electoral potential. Finally, the high electoral threshold structurally disadvantages RLPs.