How and Why Did Erdogan Win the Turkish Elections?

Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP) have dominated Turkish politics for over 20 years. Last month — despite a severe economic crisis and inflation, mismanagement during the devastating earthquake, and widespread corruption — President Erdogan was re-elected. Although the election was characterized by repression against the Kurds and the political opposition, widespread media manipulation, and election day bribes, the question remains as to why Erdoğan was elected and what his agenda for the coming years will be.

Turkish sociologist Cihan Tuğal analyses Erdogan’s electoral success as the result of state-led economic strategy and social programmes, great power ambitions, and the AKP’s deep roots within the conservative segments of the population. What are the similarities and differences with right-wing authoritarianism in Hungary, Poland, or other parts of Europe? Can these differences be explained based on the relative strength of domestic bourgeoisie, civic and ideological legacies, and these countries’ specific places and roles in world capitalism and imperial balances? Although the economic policies and institutional reordering of the regimes in Hungary and Poland have been similar on the surface, their foreign and refugee policies stances have diverged. What problems did the Turkish opposition face? What are Turkey’s prospects in its one-hundredth year?

Join us for a lecture and discussion with Cihan Tuğal, author of The Fall of the Turkish Model: How the Arab Uprisings Brought Down Islamic Liberalism (Verso, 2016) and professor of sociology at UC Berkeley.