Abstract
Aslı Iğsiz claims that Gezi protests have crystallized larger dynamics in Turkey, which, include recent legal changes and their contributions to the institutionalization of neoliberalism, centralization of power, allegations of cronyism and authoritarian-ism, thereby offering us a valuable opportunity to reconsider how high-security, neoliberal nation-states operate in general. It is easy to overlook that “there is a complex transnational system behind neoliberal policies that feeds authoritarianism”, she maintains, pointing to the gradual process whereby the riot police have replaced the military in “liberal democratic” societies, assuming the task of domestic guardianship of capitalist interests.
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Notes
in this essay, “authoritarianism” is used to signal the rise of authoritarian tendencies (such as concentration of power, lack of transparency and accountability, criminalization of dissent etc.) in the Turkish state. It is not used to make a claim that the Turkish context is a “full authoritarian regime” In full authoritarianism, there would not be a possibility for change, even with elections, as the existence of a competitive opposition party would not be an option, and fair competition would not have been possible. This is not really the case for Turkey, in spite of all the problems with the election system (e.g., in order to enter the parliament, a political party must receive at least 10 percent of the national votes). This problem is a legacy of the authoritarian policies implemented after the 1980 military coup, but politicians who came to power afterward showed little or no inclination to change it. As the issue continues, Erdoğan recently announced That changing this system is not on the AKP agenda. Despite ail these problems, however, there is still a competitive opposition party system in Turkey. For more information on the election system, see “Milletvekili Seçimi Kanunu”, available on the website of the Prime Ministry Laws and Regulations information System (Baçbakanhk Mevzuat Bilgi Sistemi) at http://www.mevzuat.gov.tr/MevzuatMetin/1.5.2839, pdf. Also, for more on Erdogans statements on The election system, seethe AK P website: http://www.akparti.org.tr/site/haberler/gundemimizde-baraji-dusurmek yok/43991. At the time of finalizing this essay, AKP’s new plans regarding the regulations of the elections were brought up again, but it is hard to draw any conclusions from what remains to be rumors at this stage. Regardless, the rise of authoritarian practices by the civilian government has also been documented and argued in the 2012 Annual Human Rights Report prepared by the Human Rights Association (Insan Haklan Derneğ i) in Turkey. http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/IHD Annual Rcport-2012_a13250.pdf. This, of course, does not mean that hybrid forms do not exist. For a compelling volume probing hybrid regimes, see Steven Levitsky and Lucan A. Way (eds), Competitive Authoritarianism: Hybrid Regimes after the Cold War (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010).
Tom Ginsburg and Tamir Moustafa (eds), Rule by Law: The Politics of Courts in Authoritarian Regimes (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008).
“State of exception” is a concept developed by the Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben. Drawing from German political theorist Carl Schmitts idea that the institution or person who can bring the state of exception by completely suspending saw in a setting is the true sovereign, Agamben argues that this method (suspension of law with claims of it being for the public good) is used as a mode of governance to establish hegemony For more, see Carl Schmitt, Political Theology: Four Chapters on the Concept of Sovereignty (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005).
Giorgio Agamben, State of Exception (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005). 4
For a recent evaluation of the justice system and legal reforms in Turkey, see, for example, the report prepared by Özgür Aşık, the chairman of European Court of Arbitration, “Legal Reforms in Turkey: Ambitious and Controversial”, Turkish Policy Quarterly 11(1), 2012, 145–153.
Henry Kissinger’s diaries, the Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Aid, are all among the common examples and referents pointed at when discussing these dynamics. Burçak Keskin Kozat, “Negotiating and institutional Framework for Turkey’s Marshall Plan: Conditions and Limits of Power 1 nequalities”, in Cangül Örnek and Çağdaş Üngür (eds), Turkey in the Cold War (Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013).
Mark Mazower, Governing the World: Tue History of an Idea (New York: Penguin, 2012).
Mahmood Mamdani, Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, the Cold War, and the Roots of Terror (New York: Three Leaves Press, 2005)
David R. Schmitz, Thank God They’re on Our Side: The United States and Right-Wing Dictatorships, 1921–1965 (North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press, 1999).
Wendy Brown, Edgework: Critical Essays on Knowledge and Politics (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005), 39–40.
Biriz Berksoy, “The Police Organization in Turkey in The Post-1980 Period arid the Re construction of the Social Formation”, in Laleh Khalili and Julian Schwedler (eds), Policing and Prisons in the Middle East: Formations of Coercion (New York: Columbia University Press, 2010).
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Iğsız, A. (2014). Brand Turkey and the Gezi Protests: Authoritarianism in Flux, Law and Neoliberaiism. In: Özkırımlı, U. (eds) The Making of a Protest Movement in Turkey: #occupygezi. Palgrave Pivot, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137413789_3
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