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Building a Competitive Authoritarian Regime: State–Business Relations in the AKP’s Turkey
Abstract
The most recent global wave of democratic reversal is marked by executive takeovers. Politically motivated interventions in domestic markets aimed at restructuring the underlying power dynamics in society have been part and parcel of these takeovers. This article investigates the new political economy behind the AKP’s competitive authoritarian rule in Turkey as an example of this larger trend. The article argues that the AKP government has built a loyal business class through an elaborate system of rewards and punishment since 2002. With the aim of consolidating its business constituency, the AKP politicized state institutions (debt collection, tax authorities, privatization, public procurement) and eroded the rule of law to distribute rents and resources to its supporters, transfer capital from its opponents to its supporters, and to discipline dissidents in business circles. These mechanisms allowed the party to skew the political playing field in its favour through its access to private resources as well as its disproportionate access to the media—built by pro-AKP businessmen—and thus underpinned the AKP’s competitive authoritarian regime.
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In the citing paper
“The 2017 referendum, which granted Erdoğan vast executive powers, epitomized the shift towards a more presidential system with the President having greater control over the government (Esen and Gumuscu 2018; Sozen 2019).”
From Post-Populism: Transitions from Populist to Personalist Authoritarian Rule (2023) · cites this paper as Esen and Gumuscu 2018
In the citing paper
“Consequently, President Erdoğan was permitted to concurrently hold the positions of the Presidency and AKP chairmanship, thus concluding his former approach of exerting control over the ruling party externally through caretaker arrangements (Esen and Gümüşcu 2018).”
From Post-Populism: Transitions from Populist to Personalist Authoritarian Rule (2023) · cites this paper as Esen and Gümüşcu 2018
In the citing paper
“This elite has then played a central role in financing the regime through contributions to AKPlinked charities, foundations, and the party itself (Esen and Gümüşcu, 2018).”
From Post-Populism: Transitions from Populist to Personalist Authoritarian Rule (2023) · cites this paper as Esen and Gümüşcu, 2018
In the citing paper
“Notably, these groups' investment in pro-AKP media and onwherskip of mainstream media outlets by business conglomerates holds significant importance, as the ruling party's favorable control over media resources serves as a foundational pillar in the consolidation of electoral authoritarianism in Turkey (Esen and Gümüşcu, 2018: 361, Sayarı, 2014: 665).”
From Post-Populism: Transitions from Populist to Personalist Authoritarian Rule (2023) · cites this paper as Esen and Gümüşcu, 2018: 361
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Cited by
Post-Populism: Transitions from Populist to Personalist Authoritarian Rule
Balta, E., Baturo, A., & Kenny, P. (2023) · doi:10.33774/apsa-2023-zpppw · Cited by 2
Metadata
- Authors
- Esen, B., & Gumuscu, S.
- Affiliations
- Bilkent University (TR)
- Department of Political Science, Middlebury College, Middlebury, VT, USA
- Corresponding author
- Esen, Berk
- ORCID
- Esen, Berk
- Venue
- Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2017-11-14
- Volume
- 20
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 349-372
- ISSN
- 1944-8953 (ISSN-L)
- 1944-8961
- OpenAlex
- W2768680613
- Cited by
- 159
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 16 · 2025: 18 · 2024: 15 · 2023: 30 · 2022: 12 · 2021: 22 · 2020: 14 · 2019: 15 · 2018: 17
- FWCI
- 61.17
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Bilkent University Institutional Repository (Bilkent University) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- American Political Science Association
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Turkey's Politics and Society
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Political Conflict and Governance
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Historical Turkish Studies
- Keywords
- competitive authoritarianism, AKP, state-business relations, political economy, democratic backsliding, rent-seeking, business class, media control, Turkey
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Cite CoChat for the checks on this page, and the paper for its own findings.
- This page
- CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Building a Competitive Authoritarian Regime: State–Business Relations in the AKP’s Turkey. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1080/19448953.2018.1385924
- The paper
- Esen, B., & Gumuscu, S. (2018). Building a Competitive Authoritarian Regime: State–Business Relations in the AKP’s Turkey. Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/19448953.2018.1385924
Data sources
Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.
Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.
