6 - Representation, Paternalism, and Exclusion

Summary

Turkish politics illustrates the complex relationships among populism, democracy, and human rights. Throughout the twentieth century, an urban, secularist elite largely monopolized government power and used it to modernize society against the will of much of the population. The Justice and Development Party (AKP) has reversed this pattern since it took power in 2002. Its leader, now-President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, is a paradigmatic populist: a charismatic leader who portrays politics as a Manichean competition between the virtuous people and a domineering elite, and his policy agenda as embodying a homogeneous popular will. The AKP has neutered the Kemalist military, bureaucracy, and judiciary, and has implemented policies favored by its once-marginalized supporters. But Erdogan's successive purges of internal rivals have bolstered the critique that he, like many populists, merely uses citizen supporters to legitimate his rule and policy preferences, rather than genuinely representing them. Since 2013, his government has harshly repressed real and perceived opponents, jailing tens of thousands, while portraying them as enemies of the people – another classic antidemocratic populist habit.