The Turkish Policy Agendas Project

Abstract

How do politicians respond to the policy priorities of the public in developing democracies? Do policymakers take into account their electoral mandate during their tenure in parliament? How does the relationship between media and politics work in a country that has a history of authoritarianism? The Turkish Policy Agendas Project aims to answer questions similar to these by providing systematic institutional data. The project content codes various parliamentary activities such as parliamentary debates, oral and written questions, parliamentary bills and laws. It also includes budget data dating back to the founding of the Turkish Republic. This chapter explains the construction of the dataset from data collection to coding, describes its features, and provides examples of possible applications.