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Liberal Democratic Mayors in Illiberal Populist Regimes: Istanbul’s Challenges

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 August 2023

Stephen Deets Open the ORCID record for Stephen Deets [Opens in a new window]
Stephen Deets*
Affiliation:
Babson College, MA, USA
*
Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

After Ekrem İmamoğlu won as Istanbul’s mayor, the contestation between the city and central government resembled other cases of liberal mayors winning in illiberal populist regimes. To expand liberal democracy, the mayor sought to reinvigorate effective democratic citizenship by increasing access to information, creating more inclusive governance networks through public participation opportunities, limiting the regime’s clientelism and rent-seeking opportunities in real estate and contracting, and (re)creating social solidarity. The national government responded by extensively covering “scandals” and continuing populist rhetoric to maintain polarization, limiting the city’s financial resources, and moving power and projects to agencies they still controlled. This article uses Istanbul to develop this model and illustrate how İmamoğlu has made progress in each area despite the central government’s effort to constrain his administration.

Keywords

Turkeyilliberalismpopulismlocal governance
Type
Article
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 52 , Issue 4 , July 2024 , pp. 889 - 906
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© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Association for the Study of Nationalities

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References

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