External Voting and the Democratic Boundary Problem: A Democratic Inclusion Analysis of the Turkish Case

Abstract

Türkiye’s external voting reforms highlight the challenges of defining democratic boundaries in a transnational era. This article addresses these reforms across four historical phases (1950–2014) through the lens of the “democratic boundary problem,” assessing how non-resident enfranchisement interacts with the All Subjected, All Affected, and Stakeholder principles of democratic inclusion. Drawing on a qualitative, interpretive analysis of primary legal sources, this study finds that Türkiye’s gradual extension of external voting rights reflects an evolving and often conflicting interplay among inclusion principles, rather than a coherent normative trajectory. In practice, legal reforms frequently outpace theoretical justifications, producing hybrid and contested boundaries of the demos. By situating Türkiye’s experience within global debates, the article develops a comparative and pluralist framework for evaluating external enfranchisement, offering conceptual tools for research on transnational democracy and policymaking.