The Limits of Positive Campaigns in Authoritarian Settings

Orçun Selçuk
Associate Professor of Political Science
Director of the International Studies Program, Luther College

Selçuk's talk examines the Turkish opposition's use of positive campaigning to counter polarization and authoritarianism. It analyzes how positive campaigns helped the opposition perform better in local elections than in national elections. 

Orçun Selçuk is associate professor of political science and director of International Studies at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. He has a PhD in political science from Florida International University. His research focuses on the intersection of populism, polarization, and opposition in Turkey and Latin America. He is the author of The Authoritarian Divide: Populism, Propaganda, and Polarization (University of Notre Dame Press), where he examines the supporters and opponents of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Turkey, Hugo Chávez in Venezuela, and Rafael Correa in Ecuador. Selçuk's academic work and public commentary appeared in Democratization, Journal of Politics in Latin America, Southeast Europe and Black Sea Studies, CNBC,  Washington Post, The Times, and The Telegraph.