By focusing on neoliberal authoritarian, hegemonic and Islamist aspects, this book sheds light on long-term dynamics that resulted in the [Turkish] regime transformation. It presents a comprehensive study at a time when rising authoritarianism challenges liberal democracies on a global scale.
Turkey's new presidential regime, promoted and shaped by the Justice and Development Party (AKP), has become a global template for rising authoritarianism. Its violence intensifi es the exigency for critical analysis. By focusing on neoliberal authoritarian, hegemonic and Islamist aspects, this book sheds light on long- term dynamics that resulted in the regime transformation. It presents a comprehensive study at a time when rising authoritarianism challenges liberal democracies on a global scale.
Reaching from critical political economy and state theory to media, gender and cultural studies, this volume covers a range of studies that transcend disciplinary boundaries. These essays challenge the narrative of an "authoritarian turn" that splits the AKP era into democratic and authoritarian periods. Hence, recent transformation is analyzed in a broad historical framework which is sensitive to both continuities and shifts. Studies that explore moments of resistance and relate the political development in Turkey to rising authoritarianism and the crisis- driven trajectory of neoliberalism on a global scale are included in this effort.
Since the advancement of neoliberal policies in conjunction with the religious project that is pushed forward by the AKP suggests that the ongoing transformation may well advance into a more totalitarian regime, this book strives to inform struggles that are trying to resist and reverse this development. By reviewing the dynamics and impacts of recent authoritarian developments, it calls on critical scholars to further seek out potentials and dynamics of opposition in the current authoritarian era.
"In a collection of original and challenging articles, Regime Change in Turkey critiques the many conventional views about how Turkey's budding democracy took an 'authoritarian turn'. Perhaps the two encouraging lessons for the future of a democratic Turkey are that the permanence of authoritarian regimes is never a forgone conclusion and secondly that in politics, nothing stays the same. In these terms Regime Change in Turkey is an essential guide to the prospects of political reform."
Prof. Dr. Bryan S. Turner, Australian Catholic University and Potsdam University Germany
"This timely and important collection challenges the conventional view of an 'authoritarian turn' of the ruling Justice and Development Party in Turkey. It provides ample evidence for AKP's deep-rooted authoritarian, patriarchal tendencies which were actualized in the wake of the financial crisis and the electoral success of the pro-Kurdish party HDP."
Prof. Dr. Christoph Scherrer, University of Kassel Germany
"This is a vigorous book that makes a thought-provoking contribution to existing scholarship on current regime transformation in Turkey by going beyond ready-made terminologies and narratives of an 'authoritarian turn' in the AKP era. The editors have brought together a wide range of critical studies on the long-term economic, cultural and political aspects of regime change as well as possibilities for democratic resistance in Turkey. A must read for rethinking the dynamics of rising authoritarianism in Turkey as well as globally."
Prof. Dr. Sebnem Oguz, Baskent University Ankara Turkey
"This volume is a strong antidote to mainstream analyses of Turkey's dictatorial structure, which unduly romanticize the current governing party's first 'liberalizing' term. Unlike most of the scholarship, it refuses to isolate institutional determinants of the Turkish regime. It contextualizes its repressiveness within the degeneration of global capitalism rather than attributing it to Turkish political culture."
Prof. Dr. Cihan Tugal, University of California at Berkeley
