Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Notes on Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Foreword
- 1 Introduction: New Authoritarian Practices in the MENA Region: Key Developments and Trends
- 2 Maintaining Order in Algeria: Upgrading Repressive Practices under a Hybrid Regime
- 3 The Authoritarian Topography of the Bahraini State: Political Geographies of Power and Protest
- 4 Authoritarian Repression Under Sisi: New Tactics or New Tools?
- 5 Deep Society and New Authoritarian Social Control in Iran after the Green Movement
- 6 Silencing Peaceful Voices: Practices of Control and Repression in Post-2003 Iraq
- 7 Israel/Palestine: Authoritarian Practices in the Context of a Dual State Crisis
- 8 Jordan: A Perpetually Liberalising Autocracy
- 9 Libya: Authoritarianism in a Fractured State
- 10 ‘The Freedom of No Speech’: Journalists and the Multiple Layers of Authoritarian Practices in Morocco
- 11 New Authoritarian Practices in Qatar: Censorship by the State and the Self
- 12 Digital Repression for Authoritarian Evolution in Saudi Arabia
- 13 The Evolution of the Sudanese Authoritarian State: The December Uprising and the Unravelling of a ‘Persistent’ Autocracy
- 14 Authoritarian Nostalgia and Practices in Newly Democratising Contexts: The Localised Example of Tunisia
- 15 An Assemblage of New Authoritarian Practices in Turkey
- 16 The United Arab Emirates: Evolving Authoritarian Tools
- 17 Authoritarian Practice and Fragmented Sovereignty in Post-uprising Yemen
- Index
15 - An Assemblage of New Authoritarian Practices inTurkey
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 November 2022
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Notes on Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Foreword
- 1 Introduction: New Authoritarian Practices in the MENA Region: Key Developments and Trends
- 2 Maintaining Order in Algeria: Upgrading Repressive Practices under a Hybrid Regime
- 3 The Authoritarian Topography of the Bahraini State: Political Geographies of Power and Protest
- 4 Authoritarian Repression Under Sisi: New Tactics or New Tools?
- 5 Deep Society and New Authoritarian Social Control in Iran after the Green Movement
- 6 Silencing Peaceful Voices: Practices of Control and Repression in Post-2003 Iraq
- 7 Israel/Palestine: Authoritarian Practices in the Context of a Dual State Crisis
- 8 Jordan: A Perpetually Liberalising Autocracy
- 9 Libya: Authoritarianism in a Fractured State
- 10 ‘The Freedom of No Speech’: Journalists and the Multiple Layers of Authoritarian Practices in Morocco
- 11 New Authoritarian Practices in Qatar: Censorship by the State and the Self
- 12 Digital Repression for Authoritarian Evolution in Saudi Arabia
- 13 The Evolution of the Sudanese Authoritarian State: The December Uprising and the Unravelling of a ‘Persistent’ Autocracy
- 14 Authoritarian Nostalgia and Practices in Newly Democratising Contexts: The Localised Example of Tunisia
- 15 An Assemblage of New Authoritarian Practices in Turkey
- 16 The United Arab Emirates: Evolving Authoritarian Tools
- 17 Authoritarian Practice and Fragmented Sovereignty in Post-uprising Yemen
- Index
Summary
Introduction
In October 2010, TheEconomist made the following observationabout Turkey: ‘Turkey is heading in a gooddirection. It remains a shining (and rare) examplein the Muslim world of a vibrant democracy with therule of law and a thriving free-market economy.’From the AKP's election to power in 2002 until theparty's heavy-handed response to the Gezi protestersin 2013, Western media and policy circles, as wellas national supporters of the AKP, promoted theimage of the Party as a reform model for the entireMENA. The so-called ‘Turkish model’ had in factlittle substance from the outset. The AKP'sauthoritarian practices, including pressures onmedia, the use of politically motivated trials andsurveillance of dissident or oppositional groups,were already present in the first decade of itsrule, even though these and other practices havesignificantly expanded their reach and intensitypost-2013 (see e.g. Yeşil 2016; Oğuz 2016; Topak2017 2019; Tansel 2018; Kaygusuz 2018). Thecontinuity in authoritarian practices under the twodecades of the AKP's rule makes it difficult todesignate the ‘new’ in new authoritarian practices.The picture is further complicated if we considerthe country's authoritarian tradition. Yet, there isalso something novel about the current authoritarianpractices which aggressively aim to discipline allspheres of political and social life, including theonline sphere, rather than only targeting selectedindividuals and groups. Following the model of anassemblage (Topak 2019) these practices are alsocontinuously expanding their reach, and make newconnections.
This chapter cannot provide a detailed examination ofeach authoritarian practice and its complexgenealogy. Rather, the aim is to provide ahistorically-grounded and theoretically informedoverview of key expanding authoritarian practicesunder the AKP's rule. To this end, the chapterstarts by discussing the authoritarian statetradition in Turkey and how the AKP inherited thistradition. Next, it draws on Michael Mann's model ofthe authoritarian state and the concept of theauthoritarian assemblage and examines expandingauthoritarian practices in key areas including civilsociety, law/judiciary, police/policing and theinternet.
The AKP and the Authoritarian State Traditionin Turkey
Modern Turkey inherited the tradition of top-down ruleof the central authority in the absence of a strongcivil society from the Ottoman Empire (Heper2000).
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- New Authoritarian Practices in the Middle East and North Africa , pp. 296 - 319Publisher: Edinburgh University PressPrint publication year: 2022