The rural roots of the rise of the Justice and Development Party in Turkey

Abstract

This paper puts forward four main arguments regarding the persistence of significant rural support of the Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, AKP) in Turkey since late 2002. Firstly, since the previous coalition government implemented the harshest neoliberal measures in the agricultural sector, small farmers do not directly associate neoliberal assault with the AKP administration. Secondly, villagers have utilized both the ballot box and direct action in order to bargain with the AKP. Thirdly, although the AKP government did not fundamentally depart from neoliberalism, the return of agricultural subsidies, significant expansion of social assistance, and rapid infrastructure construction have secured a large rural following for the party. Finally, the AKP government has effectively used coercive methods to prevent the emergence of an emancipatory political alternative.

Towards a New Political Economy of Turkish Capitalism: Three Worlds

“…Esen and Gumuscu's compelling coalitional model cannot explain the resilience of the party's rural electoral fortunes despite policies increasingly detrimental to rural livelihoods. 29 Focusing on the party's core cross-class support base does not help locate Turkey's thinly co-opted dominant private banking and industrial interests in the country's recent trajectory either. Esen and Gumuscu document how the AKP deployed corporate taxation and bankruptcy laws to selectively pressure and penalize some former 'captains of industry', 30 though the extent to which wider segments of this industrial and financial old guard not only survived but continued to flourish at the expense of popular interests is missing from the analysis.…”