Avatkov Vladimir Alekseevich – Sc.D. in Political Sciences, Head of the Department of Middle and Post-Soviet East INION RAS Sbitneva Alina Igorevna – Researcher INION RAS
The article examines the evolution of democratic processes in the Republic of Turkey. The authors consider the development of Turkish democracy, which has undergone significant changes in the process of its formation. After the death of M.K. Ataturk, who pursued a course of Westernization of Turkish society, Turkey began the transition from an illiberal model of democracy to a classical Western one, which was expressed through the integration of the Republic of Turkey into Western institutions and the formation of similar ones on its territory. At the same time, democratic processes were often combined with undemocratic actions. For example, the military, historically guarding the secular nature of the state, began to be removed from political processes. The coming to power of the Justice and Development Party, and then R.T. Erdogan strengthened the trend towards the centralization of power, the formation of a leader-centric system and the systematic Islamization and conservatization of Turkish politics. Based on data from Turkish and international studies, the authors come to the conclusion that democracy as such is a «vague» concept, and the modern Republic of Turkey occupies an intermediate position between an imperfect democracy and an authoritarian state. An attempt to democratize sociopolitical processes in Turkey led to the opposite result: after the country transformed key «democratic» institutions to suit its own needs, an Islamist conservative model of «democracy» has developed here, the ideals of which are shared only by the most religious and nationalist-minded part of Turkish society.
Turkey, Justice and Development Party, R.T. Erdogan, democracy, conservatism, Islamism, authoritarianism
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