Aytuğ Şaşmaz

Aytuğ Şaşmaz

  • CDDRL Postdoctoral Scholar, 2021-22

Biography

I am a political scientist (PhD degree expected in July 2021 from Harvard) working on political parties, social welfare policies and local governance, primarily in the Middle East and North Africa. My dissertation project focuses on secular parties in the region and explores why they could not form a robust electoral alternative to the Islamist parties in the post-uprisings period. In other projects, I explore voters' responses to executive aggrandizement (focusing on Turkey), and social welfare in the context of ethnic and organizational diversity (focusing on Lebanon). Prior to PhD, I worked as an education policy analyst in Turkey, managing several research projects in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, World Bank and UNICEF. I hold a BA degree in Political Science from Boğaziçi, and Master's degrees from the LSE and Brown. 

publications

Journal Articles
January 2022

How Voters Respond to Presidential Assaults on Checks and Balances: Evidence from a Survey Experiment in Turkey

Author(s)
cover link How Voters Respond to Presidential Assaults on Checks and Balances: Evidence from a Survey Experiment in Turkey
Commentary
August 2021

The Collapse of Tunisia’s Party System and the Rise of Kais Saied

Author(s)
cover link The Collapse of Tunisia’s Party System and the Rise of Kais Saied

In The News

CDDRL Pre and Postdocs over black and white background of Encina Hall
News

Introducing Our 2021-22 Pre and Postdoctoral Fellows

The Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL) is pleased to welcome six pre- and postdoctoral fellows who will be joining us for the 2021-22 academic year. These scholars will spend the academic year focusing on the Center's four program areas of democracy, development, evaluating the efficacy of democracy promotion, and rule of law.
cover link Introducing Our 2021-22 Pre and Postdoctoral Fellows