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During the 1960s and early 1970s, Turkey participated heavily in the process of labor migration from the Mediterranean basin to Western Europe. In addition to the policy preferences of advanced industrial European states and the demand for jobs in Europe by large numbers of Turks, Turkey's migration policies played a significant role in the expansion of the migratory flow. Turkish policymakers sought to use labor migration abroad to fulfill several objectives such as reducing unemployment and increasing the volume of foreign-exchange reserves through remittances. The migration of Turkish workers to Western Europe produced some significant results concerning these primary objectives. The policy of exporting workers, however, has also had important unintended consequences and problems for Turkey.

Out-migration seen as a means of alleviating domestic unemployment and of increasing foreign exchange reserves through emigrant remittances at home.

CONTINUITY RATHER THAN CHANGE WAS CHARACTERISTIC OF THE Turkish party system during its formative years in the late 1940s and the 1950s. Now, however, party competition in Turkey appears to be approaching a new phase of development. While some political analysts have described the emerging trends in the 1970s with reference to a 'critical realignment' in mass electoral behaviour, others have characterized the party system as going through a period of 'flux and transition'. Indeed, the recent course of electoral politics in Turkey displays some significant changes. First, with the termination of the Justice Party's UP) dominant position in party competition, there has been a transition from a predominant party system to one of moderate pluralism in which the likelihood of coalition government has significantly increased. Secondly, the trend toward greater fragmentation in the party system which partially accounted for the JP's loss of dominance in 1973, appears to have been reversed in the 1977 parliamentary election as the two major parties made substantial gains at the expense of the minor parties. Thirdly, these changes have been accompanied by the increase of ideological polarization in the party system and the intensification of ideological cleavages among the party elites.

In recent years, there has been growing interest in Turkey, stemming from the country's developing role in regional and global politics, its expanding economic strength, and its identity as a predominantly Muslim country with secular political institutions and democratic processes. This Handbook provides a comprehensive and wide-ranging profile of modern Turkey. Bringing together original contributions from leading scholars with a wide range of backgrounds, this important reference work gives a unique in-depth survey of Turkish affairs, past and present. Thematically organised sect.