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Neoliberal Penality and State Legitimacy: Politics of Amnesty in Turkey during the AKP Period

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

İrem Yıldırım  and
Tuna Kuyucu Open the ORCID record for Tuna Kuyucu [Opens in a new window]
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Abstract

General amnesty is an extraordinary policy mostly used in the aftermath of civil wars or regime transition to maintain political stability. In Turkey, however, amnesties have historically been used to resolve the chronic problems of the criminal justice system. This radically changed after the Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in 2002, which has taken a sharp anti-amnesty position. This shift should be understood as part of AKP's neoliberal orientation in criminal justice policies that has increased the dose of punitiveness, emphasized individual responsibility of offenders, and enhanced the organizational efficiency of institutions. Central to this neoliberal penal orientation is the party's neopopulist ideology constructed on an image of a strong state that (i) is capable of dealing with structural problems without having to recourse to extraordinary measures, (ii) no longer sees criminals as “victims of fate”, (iii) prioritizes victims’ rights. Our analysis contributes to the mounting literature on neoliberal penalty in two ways: first is by bringing the question of why states forgive at center stage when most work focuses exclusively on how and why states punish; second is by paying closer attention to how developing country governments with limited financial, logistical, and administrative resources manage the tensions and contradictions that neoliberal penal policies bring forth. Our arguments are based on official reports; in-depth interviews with legal professionals; and descriptive statistics on the criminal justice system.

Type
Articles
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 51 , Issue 4 , December 2017 , pp. 859 - 894
Copyright
© 2017 Law and Society Association.

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Footnotes

We would like to thank Arda Ibikoğlu and LSR's anonymous reviewers for their valuable feedback and criticism. İrem Yıldırım wishes to thank TUBİTAK for generously supporting her research. Tuna Kuyucu wishes to thank the Urban Studies Foundation and the University of Edinburgh's libraries for generously providing the much needed time, space and resources to write.

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