The Justice and Development Party (AKP) were elected to power in 2002 and since then Turkish politics has undergone considerable change. This book is a comprehensive analysis of the AKP and its politics in government, and will be an important contribution to Political Science, particularly the areas of Turkish politics, Middle Eastern studies, Islamic studies and comparative politics.

The Justice and Development Party (AKP) were elected to power in 2002 and since then Turkish politics has undergone considerable change. This book is a comprehensive analysis of the AKP, in terms not just of its ideological agenda, but also of its social basis and performance in office in the main theatres of public policy – political reform, and cultural, economic and foreign policies. Based on an extensive analysis of official and party documents, interviews, academic sources and media coverage, the book outlines the main features of the current global debate on the relationship between Islam, Islamism and democracy. While most top AKP leaders come from an Islamist background, the party has behaved as a moderate, centre-right, conservative democratic party who are fully committed to democracy, a free market economy and Turkey’s EU membership. The book explores and analyses these changes in Turkish politics, and provides coverage of the workings of the contemporary Turkish political systems, policy and ideological issues that go to the heart of Turkish identity. Filling a gap in the existing Turkish and English literature on the subject, this book will be an important contribution to Political Science, particularly the areas of Turkish politics, Middle Eastern studies, Islamic studies and comparative politics.

Turkey, a Muslim-majority country, is pivotal to Western security interests in the Middle East. Its ruling party, the AKP, has Islamic roots but operates within a framework of strict secular democracy, which has generated controversy over the boundaries between secularism and religion. This monograph describes the politico-religious landscape in Turkey and evaluates how the balance between secular and religious forces has changed over the past decade.

This comprehensive volume analyses the phenomena of populism and Islamism in Turkey under Justice and Development Party (JDP) rule since 2002, and its impact on the country’s foreign policy. The authors seek to identify the meanings of ‘populism’ and ‘Islamism’ in the Turkish context and their relationship to democracy there, exploring the extent to which they may explain the apparent rise of authoritarianism and illiberalism under the JDP and especially under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and address the tensions between Turkey’s ‘western’ and ‘Muslim’ discourses and the politicization of history in the ‘new Turkey’. They examine the implications of these developments for Turkey’s EU accession prospects and its western alliances, explore the impact they have had on the country’s approach to the Arab Spring, and consider their relationship to Turkey’s status as an emerging economy in an economically globalizing context. The volume also debates whether Turkish populism is unique to that country or reflects a growing trend in world politics, including in the west. This book will be of great interest to students and researchers of political science and international relations, especially those with a focus on Turkey. It was originally published as a special issue of the journal Turkish Studies.

This anthology offers an alternative, critical reading of contemporary Turkish politics by problematizing the synthetic articulation of Islamist politics with neoliberal capitalism during the AKP party's decade-long rule. The contributors offer a detailed analysis of the seemingly contradictory policies of the AKP regime, from social to cultural to foreign policy, with a view to understanding changes in Turkey's neoliberal order. The editors contend that the AKP party's rule should be read on the basis of transformations within capitalism in neoliberal times involving different forms of suppression and exploitation along axes of class, race and gender. ...a very timely and provocative work on the recent socio-economic history of Turkey offering new insights on peripheral capitalism and a decisive transformation to market-friendly Islamism. A. Erinc Yeldan, Professor of Economics, Bilkent University and author of "The Economics of Growth and Distribution"(2009)

Turkey is ninty-nine per cent Muslim, its ruling party, Justice and Development Party (JDP), comes from but denies its Islamist pedigree and has a very secular feel. However, the deeply secular regime distrusts the JDP with regard to its 'true' colours. This book makes sense of these paradoxical perceptions which have characterized Turkey’s politics since the JDP has come to power in 2002. The key momentum for shaping the nature and trajectories of the ruling party of Turkey since 2002, the JDP, has been the ‘identity’ question. The JDP’s commitment to transform Turkey’s politics was part of its engagement to remake its own identity. The JDP’s adoption of a conservative-democrat identity has rested on a new understanding of Westernization, secularism, democracy and the role and relevance of Islam in politics. The book’s central problematic is to explain both the politics of change the JDP initiated and sustained in the first three years in office and the politics of retreat it has made from its reformist discourse since 2005. The book analyzes not just the catalysts for its reformist discourse of the first 3 years but tries to explain its reversal to an inward-looking conservative nationalist course. By approaching this topical debate from the conceptual stance rather than a party-centered approach, Ümit Cizre identifies that the change the JDP has initiated within Turkey’s political Islam and in Turkish politics is the product of an interactive process between many levels, actors, forces and historical periods. The forces and actors covered include: global forces of Islam the secular establishment and its popular extensions the past and present Islamic actors in political and non-political spheres the changing balance of forces in the region which frame the EU and the US policies toward the JDP. Secular and Islamic Politics in Turkey is a valuable contribution to the study of globalization and ‘change’ in contemporary political Islam, the relationship between religion and politics, and secularism and political Islam. As such, it will be of interest to students and researchers alike in the area of Islamic politics, democratization, European Union and political Islam, and globalization.