Looking beyond democratic backsliding: analysing the political economy context of Turkey’s regime trajectory through a mode of participation approach

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article challenges the “democratic backsliding” accounts of Turkey’s recent regime trajectory that are conceptually premised on a neo-Weberian understanding of the relationship between the state and society/markets. It uses a “modes of participation” (MOP) approach that is informed by a Gramscian theorization of the state-society complex. It is argued that Turkey’s neo-liberal capitalist development during the Justice and Development Party (AKP) era has not been conducive to allowing for the formation of cohesive alliances in support of liberal democratic representation. Instead, the country’s already oppressed and divided labour force has further been fragmented under the neo-liberal economic policy, while its middle and business classes have supported democracy only when it has been in their interest, and intellectuals have been co-opted. Hence, the way the AKP governs Turkey is not because of weak or ineffective state institutions. It is rather rooted in the structural tensions in Turkey’s capitalist development that require the ruling elites’ mediation through a variety of parliamentary and extra-parliamentary mechanisms of resource allocation to maintain their dominant position in the political arena.