The case of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), which has been in power in Turkey for 17 years, requires elaborate scrutiny extending beyond its populist logic and considering its articulation with other discourses such as neoliberalism, Islamism, nationalism, and authoritarianism.
Such scrutiny also necessities a periodization of AKP rule which has undergone a dramatic transformation. In its first two governmental terms (2002- 2011) the AKP acted mainly as an emergent centre-right party rather than a right-wing populist one – self-designated as “conservative-democrat”. It represented the forward march of the Islamic-conservative constituencies to the centre of power without alienating most of the electorate and accommodating the demands of its constituency to the requirements of neoliberal capitalism, in the context of further democratization enabled by the EU accession process.
Then, going through a drastic period of transition between 2010-2015, the party transformed itself into a nationalist-populist party pushing the regime into electoral-authoritarianism with the imposition of a new constitution and the establishment of one party-one-man rule.
