Iron fist or nimble fingers?: An anatomy of Erdogan's strongman politics

Abstract

ABSTRACT Populist strongman rulers of our times have two contradictory portraits. They appear messianic saviours committed to rooting out corrupt politicians and kindling a moral rejuvenation. They also appear pragmatists unafraid to get their hands dirty in the rough and tumble of politics and commerce. How do strongmen carry these two faces without having to resolve their glaring contradictions? I locate the roots of Janus-faced strongmen in their partnership with overlapping networks of religion and business. Focusing on the case of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, I argue that his two faces are embedded in two different Muslim networks, the morally stringent Islamists and the realist Gülenists. The idioms generated by these networks, ‘Homo Islamicus’ and ‘Golden Generation,’ have profoundly shaped the content and style of Erdogan's politics. I use these idioms to delineate these networks’ social makeup and show how (1) they hold the strongman accountable beyond the law and the ballot in the national sphere and (2) externally serve as informal diplomats calibrating his image abroad. I further argue that the strongman-network partnership is a fragile and high-stakes arrangement as their falling-out can leave the strongman hallowed out and the network fragmented. This research allows us to reimagine the strongmen of our times as socially accountable figures whose political prospects hinge less on an iron fist than nimble fingers knitting a delicate web of clients and informal diplomats.