Authoritarian consolidation dynamics in Turkey

This paper aims to explain the key dynamics underlying the Justice and Development Party's (AKP) recent authoritarian consolidation efforts in Turkey from a critical political economy perspective consisting of the Regulation School's framework and Nicos Poulantzas's state theory. The depoliticised mode of regulating money, labour, and macroeconomic management worked in parallel with introducing dependent financialisation as the predominant capital accumulation regime between 2002 and 2013. Since 2013, however, the successive AKP governments have struggled with the structural crisis of Turkey's capitalism, which is a combination of the crisis of accumulation regime and the crisis of the state, leading to two changes: the mode of regulation has re-politicised, and the struggle within the power bloc has intensified. As a result, the AKP implemented more ambitious survival strategies, and deepened authoritarianism by changing the political regime from parliamentary to presidential system in 2018, and initiating further authoritarian consolidation efforts in 2019.