Erdoğan’s three-pillared neoliberalism: Authoritarianism, populism and developmentalism

Abstract

The era of the AKP—the incumbent regime in Turkey since 2002 under Mr. Tayyip Erdoğan’s leadership—has been marked by the interdependent functioning of authoritarianism, populism and developmentalism; the three pillars worked and reworked to garner popular support, win legitimacy and co-opt or buffer opposition. One pivotal area where these three pillars have surfaced is the environment, along with the grievances the regime created. The puzzling point in this picture is that most of the social dissent that directly or indirectly arose from such developmentalist projects has only been partially pronounced, and did not translate into a robust anti-government stance. AKP supporters who were adversely impacted from these projects have mostly continued to back the party. Although the AKP’s authoritarian power puts constraints on any kind of opposition, there is an additional element that needs to be addressed in any form of coercion, real or perceived: people seem to be partially or fully convinced that shouldering environmental costs is a must on the path to prosperity. This paper uses a Gramscian framework to unpack the AKP’s specific combination of authoritarianism and consent-building in the environmental domain to better understand the resilience of their hegemonic power, and claim that the prosperity appeal of developmentalism made it possible for the AKP to legitimise its claim to rule by drawing on broad-based support.