The Justice and Development Party in Turkey
Populism, Personalism, Organization

A fieldwork-based account of the role of populism, personalism and organisation in the rise of Erdo?an's JDP to authoritarian predominance.

Toygar Sinan Baykan (Author)

9781108461658, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 18 June 2020

336 pages, 8 b/w illus. 3 maps
23 x 15.3 x 2 cm, 0.5 kg

'Baykan's Justice and Development Party in Turkey is fascinating and shrewd. It provides an incisive, comprehensive, and convincing analysis of the rise of the party and, more importantly, its leader Erdogan to the extremely powerful executive position in Turkish politics. His work is original, unfailingly eloquent, instructive, timely and inspiring. In a time when we have been observing the rise of competitive authoritarianism and democratic backsliding on a global scale, Baykan's work will exert great influence for the academic and policy-oriented studies and discussions, not only in the Turkish context but also in the fields of Political Science, Comparative Politics and Political Theory. It is a must-read.' Fuat Keyman, Sabanc? University

Turkish politics were remarkably reshaped in the early 2000s following the decline of the Islamist National View and the electoral breakthrough of the new Justice and Development Party (JDP) headed by Erdo?an. Beside its Islamist credentials, Erdo?an's JDP consistently and convincingly presented itself as the 'populist' defender of the downtrodden sectors of Turkish society. However, with Erdo?an's rise as the popularly elected president in 2014, Turkey's already fragile democratic system was driven in a more authoritarian direction. Shifting the focus away from structural factors, this book analyzes the political appeal and organisation of the JDP that granted them such unprecedented electoral resilience. With critical but accessible theoretical discussions, Toygar Sinan Baykan locates the JDP within the wider literature of populism, Islamist party politics, party organisations and authoritarianism. Over fifty in-depth interviews also help to relate the intimate story of Turkey's socio-cultural divides and the JDP's intraparty organisational dynamics, thereby offering a fresh account of Turkish politics.

Acknowledgements
1. Introduction: agency matters
2. The transformation of the Turkish party system: selective pluralism and the rise of the JDP
3. The high-low divide in Turkish politics and the populist appeal of the JDP
4. The JDP and Erdo?an: non-charismatic personalism
5. The JDP strategies: moving beyond the basics of Turkish party politics
6. The JDP organization: a personalistic mass party
7. Elite recruitment in the JDP: 'you do not want these kinds of people in the parliament'
8. 'The new regime': the role of agency in the rise of competitive authoritarianism in Turkey
9. Conclusions: findings, implications, future research
Appendix 1. Brief information on the political parties in Turkey
Appendix 2. The high-low (or anti-populism/populism) and left-right divides in Turkey.

Subject Areas: Political campaigning & advertising [JPVL], Political control & freedoms [JPV], Political parties [JPL], Social issues & processes [JFF]