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Turkey: The Slippery Slope from Reformist to Revolutionary Polarization and Democratic Breakdown

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  • Murat Somer

Abstract

Under the Justice and Development Party AKP and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkey has become one of the most polarized countries in the world, and has undergone a significant democratic breakdown. This article explains how polarization and democratic breakdown happened, arguing that it was based on the built-in, perverse dynamics of an “authoritarian spiral of polarizing-cum-transformative politics.†Furthermore, I identify ten causal mechanisms that have produced pernicious polarization and democratic erosion. Turkey’s transformation since 2002 is an example of the broader phenomenon of democratic erosion under new elites and dominant groups. The causes and consequences of pernicious polarization are analyzed in terms of four subperiods: 2002–2006, 2007, 2008–2013, and 2014–present. In the end, what began as a potentially reformist politics of polarization-cum-transformation morphed into an autocratic-revolutionary one. During this process, polarization and AKP policies; the politicization of formative rifts that had been a divisive undercurrent since nation-state formation; structural transformations; and the opposition’s organizational, programmatic, and personal shortcomings fed and reinforced each other.

Suggested Citation

  • Murat Somer, 2019. "Turkey: The Slippery Slope from Reformist to Revolutionary Polarization and Democratic Breakdown," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 681(1), pages 42-61, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:681:y:2019:i:1:p:42-61
    DOI: 10.1177/0002716218818056
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Berk Esen & Sebnem Gumuscu, 2016. "Rising competitive authoritarianism in Turkey," Third World Quarterly, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(9), pages 1581-1606, September.
    2. Caroline Lancaster, 2014. "The iron law of Erdogan: the decay from intra-party democracy to personalistic rule," Third World Quarterly, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(9), pages 1672-1690, October.
    3. Ergun Özbudun, 2014. "AKP at the Crossroads: Erdoğan's Majoritarian Drift," South European Society and Politics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(2), pages 155-167, April.
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    Cited by:

    1. Hazama,Yasushi, 2023. "Welfare, Corruption, and the Economic Vote of Punishment: The Turkish Case," IDE Discussion Papers 908, Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization(JETRO).

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