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).