Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Examining State and Evil: Authoritarian Slips, Past and Present, Cosmin Cercel,Cihan Özpınar, Editör, Brill, Leiden , Leiden, ss.43-52, 2013
The 2001 crisis in Turkey threatened the balance of power and enforced the emergence of a new ‘Demo-Islamic’ political subject to establish a new social compromise in Turkey. This new hegemonic strategy is based upon the politics of recognition that replaces the politics of denial. The strategy shaped the popular image of the government as if it were indisputably democratic. The success of AKP (Justice and Development Party) in suppressing and controlling socio-political opposition lies in the unification of a discourse of anti-statism and of the state’s omnipotence. In this sense, AKP’s hegemonic strategy presented itself as an opposition party in the public perception, so that it contributed to the counter-mobilisation of the masses. Thus AKP exploits the disillusion of the masses by provoking them against ‘ancien régime’ and all types of political opposition based on the previous social, cultural and ideological cleavages paralysed in this new antagonistic perception of the political sphere. The importance of creating a moral panic by manipulating social anxieties (economic instability, military coup or terrorist attacks, etc.) is particularly emphasised during this period. Under the rule of AKP, a sort of emerging populist ventriloquism excludes citizens from political participation and the government violently prevents all penetration attempts. In this context, several legal investigations and trials documented appear as the most influential tool of oppressing the political opposition. This catch-all process that criminalises dissent as ‘terrorist crime’ will be considered as a perfect way of folk devil creation. This chapter considers authoritarian populism as an attempt to organise populist participation and to produce mass consent for AKP’s anti-statist discourse, in perfect harmony with neoliberalisation. It defines its subject as the analysis of process of realisation of state authority in everyday political life and policing popular dissent through the vast repertory of authoritarian state practices.