<Summary>
We discussed the recent election of the parliament in Turkey. AK party that had been party in power for 13 years in the parliament lost its majority and in contrast HDP, the opposition party, got more seats in the parliament. The president of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdodan, who has a strong connection to AK party had a strong power and could execute his policies as he like with the support of this party. But because of this AK party’s defeat, he can no longer do what he wants to do like before. The reason of the loss is thought to be a stagnation of the economy that had been in good times until recently and high-price as a result of the stagnation and also, violent ways to control opposition movement or the mass media is one of the reasons.
<Opinion>
Through the discussions in this class, I often saw some bad cases of the president’s abusing of his power. These cases raise question as to whether the system of having the president is necessary especially when the country has the Prime Minister. But I think a presidential system is still meaningful compared to a parliamentary system of government such as UK or Japan. Certainly, giving a strong power to one person is dangerous, but people directly elect the president and parliament whose member is also elected by people as well can be deterrence. This means that there are two direct tests by people while a parliamentary system of government has only one direct test. Of course a presidential system also has some bad points but I think this system is well-balanced and useful system of government.