Cover not available

In:Imagining the Peoples of Europe: Populist discourses across the political spectrum
Edited by Jan Zienkowski and Ruth Breeze
[Discourse Approaches to Politics, Society and Culture 83] 2019
► pp. 101–122

Get fulltext
PDF logo with download linkDownload Chapter PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload Chapter EPUB

Chapter 4
Islamic conservative populism in Turkey

The case of the AKP

Open Access logo
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.

Published online: 13 August 2019
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/dapsac.83.05oze
Abstract
This study focuses the Islamic/conservative populism of the Justice and the Development Party (AKP) in Turkey. Drawing on the post-structuralist discourse-theoretical perspective developed by Ernesto Laclau, it demonstrates how the populist discourse of the AKP substantially changed in this period through fluctuations in the boundaries that separated ‘the people’ from ‘the power’ as well as the components of both of these categories. While ‘the people’ signifier initially acted as an empty signifier that represented a series of unfulfilled social demands against ‘the power’ – the institutional system – that negated these demands, it gradually came to signify Islamic/conservative demands against all those opposing the AKP. This transformation involved a move from a relatively inclusive and democratic populism to an exclusive and authoritarian one.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.‘The people’ as the subject of politics: The Laclauian perspective of populism
  • 3.Data collection and analysis
  • 4.Conditions of the AKP’s populism: The crises in the Turkish context
  • 5.The AKP as a new populist force
  • 6.Early years of the AKP (2001-mid-2011): People as an empty signifier
  • 7.People as a signifier of Islamic/conservatism (mid-2011 to date)
  • 8.Conclusion
  • References
References (34)
References
Akdogan, Yalçın. 2003. Muhafazakar Demokrasi. Ankara: Ak Parti Yayınları.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2004. Ak Parti ve Muhafazakar Demokrasi. Istanbul: Alfa Yayınları.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bakırezer, Güven, and Yücel Demirer. 2010. “AK Parti’nin Sosyal Siyaseti.” In AKP Kitabı: Bir Dönüşümün Bilançosu ed. by İlhan Uzgel, and Bülent Duru: 153–178. Ankara: Phoenix.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Boratav, Korkut. 2010. “AKP’li yıllarda Türkiye Ekonomisi.” In AKP Kitabı: Bir Dönüşümün Bilançosu ed. by İlhan Uzgel, and Bülent Duru: 463–472. Ankara: Phoenix.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bugra, Ayşe. 2008. Kapitalizm, Yoksulluk ve Türkiye’de Sosyal Politika. İstanbul: İletişim.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bugra, Ayşe, and Osman Savaşkan. 2014. New Capitalism in Turkey: the Relationship between Politics, Religion and Business. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Celasun, Oya. 1998. “The 1994 Currency Crisis in Turkey.” World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 1913.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Çınar, Menderes. 2006. “Turkey’s Transformation under the AKP Rule.” Muslim World 96: 469–482. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
, 2013. “AKP ve İslami Hareketler: Defansif ve Dağıtıcı İktidar Kardeşliği.” In AKP Kitabı: Bir Dönüşümün Bilançosu ed. by İlhan Uzgel, and Bülent Duru: 307–315. Ankara: Phoenix.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Glynos, Jason, and Aurelien Mondon. 2016. “The Political Logic of Populist Hype: The Case of Right-Wing Populism’s ‘Meteoric Rise’ and its Relation to the Status Quo.” Populismus Working Papers 4: 1–23.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hale, William, and Ergun Özbudun. 2010. Islamism, Democracy and Liberalism in Turkey: The Case of the AKP. London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jorgensen, Marianne W., and Louise J. Phillips. 2002. Discourse Analysis as Theory and Method. London: Sage. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Karpat, Kemal. 1970. “Modern Turkey.” In The Cambridge History of Islam ed. by Peter M. Holt, Ann K. S. Lambton, and Bernard Lewis: 527–565. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kaya, Ayhan. 2015. “Islamisation of Turkey under the AKP Rule: empowering family, faith and charity.” South European Society and Politics 20 (1): 47–69. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Laclau, Ernesto. 2005a. On Populist Reason. London: Verso.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2005b. “Populism: what’s in a name?” In Populism and the Mirror of Democracy, ed. by Fransisco Panizza: 32–49. London: Verso.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2006. “Ideology and post-Marxism”. Journal of Political Ideologies 11 (2): 103–114. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Moffitt, Benjamin. 2015. “How to Perform Crisis: A Model for Understanding the Key Role of Crisis in Contemporary Populism”. Government and Opposition 50 (2): 189–217. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mouffe, Chantal. 2013. Agonistics: Thinking the World Politically. London and New York: Verso.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2016a. “The Populist Moment.” Open Democracy. [URL].Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2016b. “The Populist Challenge.” Open Democracy. [URL].Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mudde, Cas. 2007. Populist Radical Right Parties in Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Öniş, Ziya. 2012. “The Triumph of Conservative Globalism: the Political Economy of the AKP Era.” Turkish Studies 13 (2): 135–152. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Öniş, Ziya, and Fikret Şenses. 2009. “The New Phase of Neoliberal Structuring in Turkey: an Overview.” In Turkey and the Global Economy, ed. by Ziya Öniş, and Fikret Şenses: 1–10. New York: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Öniş, Ziya, and Caner Bakır. 2007. “Turkey’s Political Economy in the Age of Financial Globalization: The Significance of the EU Anchor.” South European Society and Politics 12 (2): 147–164. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Özen, Hayriye. 2015. “An Unfinished Grassroots Populism: The Gezi Park Protests in Turkey and Their Aftermath.” South European Society and Politics 20 (4): 533–552. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Şimşek, Sefa. 2013. “Conservative Democracy as a Cosmetic Image in Turkish Politics: The Semiology of AKP’s Political Identity.” Turkish Studies 14 (3): 429–446. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stavrakakis, Yannis. 2005. “Religion and Populism in Contemporary Greece”. In Populism and the Mirror of Democracy, ed. by Francisco Panizza: 224–249. London: Verso.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2015. “Populism in power: Syriza’s challenge to Europe.” Juncture 21 (4): 273–280. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tanör, Bülent. 1995. “12 Eylül Rejimi (1980- 1983)”. In Türkiye Tarihi 5: Bugünkü Türkiye 1980–1995, ed. by Bülent Tanör, Korkut Boratav, and Sina Akşin: 23–57. İstanbul: Cem Yayınevi.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Taşkın, Yüksel. 2013. AKP Devri: Türkiye Siyaseti, İslâmcılık, Arap Baharı. İstanbul: İletişim.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tuğal, Cihan. 2009. Passive Revolution: Absorbing the Islamic Challenge to Capitalism. Stanford: Stanford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Yegen, Mesut. 2001. “Kemalizm ve Hegemonya?”. In Modern Türkiye’de Siyasi Düşünce: Kemalizm ed. by Ahmet İnsel. İstanbul: İletişim Yayınları.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Yeldan, Erinç. 2008. Turkey and the Long Decade with the IMF: 1998–2008. Ankara: Bilkent University.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (2)

Cited by two other publications

Ozen, Hayriye & Burak Dogu
2020. Mobilizing in a hybrid political system: the Artvin case in Turkey. Democratization 27:4 ► pp. 624 ff. DOI logo
Statham, Simon
2020. The year’s work in stylistics 2019. Language and Literature: International Journal of Stylistics 29:4 ► pp. 454 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 8 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue