Why Party Bans Often Don’t Work: How an Attempt to Ban Turkey’s AKP Backfired

Abstract

What can be a effective legal strategy for protecting democracy? Party bans are not a long-term solution or substi-tute for systemic political reforms. Although the tools of “militant democracy” may be useful, the Turkish case suggests that targeted legal interventions, rather than sweeping party bans, may be more effective at safeguarding democracy.