Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-18T01:25:55.825Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Did Secularism Fail? The Rise of Religion in Turkish Politics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 December 2012

Zeynep Taydas ,
Yasemin Akbaba  and
Minion K. C. Morrison
Zeynep Taydas*
Affiliation:
Clemson University
Yasemin Akbaba*
Affiliation:
Gettysburg College
Minion K. C. Morrison*
Affiliation:
Mississippi State University
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Zeynep Taydas, Department of Political Science, Clemson University, 232 Brackett Hall, Clemson, SC 29634. E-mail: [email protected]; Yasemin Akbaba, Department of Political Science, Gettysburg College, 300 North Washington Street, Gettysburg, PA 17325. E-mail: [email protected]; Minion K. C. Morrison, Department of Political Science and Public Administration, Mississippi State University, P.O. Box PC, Mississippi State, MS 39762. E-mail: [email protected]
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Zeynep Taydas, Department of Political Science, Clemson University, 232 Brackett Hall, Clemson, SC 29634. E-mail: [email protected]; Yasemin Akbaba, Department of Political Science, Gettysburg College, 300 North Washington Street, Gettysburg, PA 17325. E-mail: [email protected]; Minion K. C. Morrison, Department of Political Science and Public Administration, Mississippi State University, P.O. Box PC, Mississippi State, MS 39762. E-mail: [email protected]
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Zeynep Taydas, Department of Political Science, Clemson University, 232 Brackett Hall, Clemson, SC 29634. E-mail: [email protected]; Yasemin Akbaba, Department of Political Science, Gettysburg College, 300 North Washington Street, Gettysburg, PA 17325. E-mail: [email protected]; Minion K. C. Morrison, Department of Political Science and Public Administration, Mississippi State University, P.O. Box PC, Mississippi State, MS 39762. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Religious movements have long been challenging the modernist and secularist ideas around the world. Within the last decade or so, pro-religious parties made significant electoral advances in various countries, including India, Sudan, Algeria, and the Palestinian territories. In this article, we focus on the rise of the pro-religious Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi- AKP) to power in the 2002 elections in Turkey. Using the Turkish experience with political Islam, we evaluate the explanatory value of Mark Juergensmeyer's rise of religious nationalism theory, with a special emphasis on the “failed secularism” argument. Our analysis indicates that the theoretical approach formulated by Juergensmeyer has a great deal of explanatory power; however, it does not provide a complete explanation for the success of the AKP. The rise of religion in Turkish politics is the result of a complex process over long years of encounter and confrontation between two frameworks of order, starting with the sudden imposition of secularism from above, when the republic was established. Hence, to understand the rise of religion in contemporary Turkish politics, an in-depth understanding of history, politics, and the sources of tension between secularists and Islamists is essential. The findings of this article have important implications for other countries, especially those that are experiencing a resurgence of religion in politics, and are struggling to integrate religious parties into a democratic system.

Type
Articles
Information
Politics and Religion , Volume 5 , Issue 3 , December 2012 , pp. 528 - 554
Copyright
Copyright © Religion and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Almond, Gabriel, Dalton, Russell J., and Powell, G. Bingham Jr. 1999. European Politics Today. New York, NY: Longman.Google Scholar
Altunışık, Meliha, and Tür, Özlem. 2005. Turkey: Challenges of Continuity and Change. New York, NY: Routledge.Google Scholar
Akgün, Birol. 2001. “Aspects of Party System Development in Turkey.” Turkish Studies 2:71–92.Google Scholar
Buğra, Ayse. 2003. “The Place of the Economy in Turkish Society.” The South Atlantic Quarterly 102:453–470.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Çarkoğlu, Ali. 1998. “The Turkish Political Party System in Transition: Party Performance and Agenda Change.” Political Studies 46:544–571.Google Scholar
Çarkoğlu, Ali. 2002. “Turkey's November 20002 Elections: A New Beginning?” Middle East Review of International Affairs 6:1–11.Google Scholar
Çarkoğlu, Ali. 2008. “Ideology or Economic Pragmatism? Profiling Turkish Voters in 2007.” Turkish Studies 9:317–344.Google Scholar
Çarkoğlu, Ali, and Kalaycıoğlu, Ersin. 2009. The Rising Tide of Conservatism in Turkey. Palgrave: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Çayır, Kenan. 2008. “The Emergence of Turkey's Contemporary ‘Muslim Democrats.’” In Secular and Islamic Politics in Turkey: The Making of the Justice and Development Party, ed., Cizre, Umit.New York, NY: Routledge.Google Scholar
Gülalp, Hakan. 2003. “Whatever Happened to Secularization Multiple Islams in Turkey.” The South Atlantic Quarterly 102:381–395.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hale, William. 2005. “Christian Democracy and the AKP: Parallels and Contrasts.” Turkish Studies 6:293–310.Google Scholar
Huntington, Samuel P. 1993. “The Clash of Civilizations?” Foreign Affairs 72:22–49.Google Scholar
İbrahim, Anwar. 2006. “Universal Values and Muslim Democracy.” Journal of Democracy 17:5–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jenkins, Gareth. 2003. “Muslim Democrats in Turkey.” Survival 45:45–66.Google Scholar
Juergensmeyer, Mark. 2001. “The Global Rise of Religious Nationalism.” In Religions/Globalizations: Theories and Cases, eds, Hopkins, Dwight N., Lorentzen, Lois Ann, Eduardo, Mendieta, David, Batstone. Durham, NC: Duke University Press 66–83.Google Scholar
Juergensmeyer, Mark. 2005. “Religious Antiglobalism.” In Religion in Global Civil Society, ed., Juergenemeyer, Mark.New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Juergensmeyer, Mark. 1996. “The Worldwide Rise of Religious Nationalism.” Journal of International Affairs 50:1–20.Google Scholar
Juergensmeyer, Mark. 1995. “The New Religious State.” Comparative Politics 27:379–391.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Juergensmeyer, Mark. 1993a. The New Cold War? Religious Nationalism Confronts the Secular State. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Juergensmeyer, Mark. 1993b. “Why Religious Nationalists are not Fundamentalists.” Religion 23:85–92.Google Scholar
Kalaycıoğlu, Ersin. 2008. “Attitudinal Orientation to Party Organizations in Turkey in the 2000s.” Turkish Studies 9:297–316.Google Scholar
Kalaycıoğlu, Ersin. 2007. “Politics of Conservatism in Turkey.” Turkish Studies 8:233–252.Google Scholar
Kalaycıoğlu, Ersin. 2002. “The Motherland Party: The Challenge of Industrialization in a Charismatic Leader Party.” In Political Parties in Turkey, eds., Rubin, Barry, and Heper, Metin. Portland, OR: Frank Cass.Google Scholar
Kalaycıoğlu, Ersin. 1997. “The Logic of Contemporary Turkish Politics.” Middle East Review of International Affairs 1:1–11.Google Scholar
Kalaycıoğlu, Ersin. 1994. “Elections and Party Preference in Turkey: Changes and Continuities in the 1990s.” Comparative Political Studies 27:402–424.Google Scholar
Kalyvas, Stathis N. 2000. “Commitment Problems on Emerging Democracies: The Case of Religious Parties.” Comparative Politics 32:379–398.Google Scholar
Kedourie, Ellie. 1997. Democracy and Arab Political Culture. London: Frank Cass.Google Scholar
Kınıklıoğlu, Suat. 2002. “The Democratic Left Party: Kapikulu Politics Par Excellence.” In Political Parties in Turkey, eds., Rubin, Barry, and Heper, Metin. Portland, OR: Frank Cass.Google Scholar
Kieser, Hans-Lukas. 2006. Turkey beyond Nationalism: Towards Post-nationalist Identities. London: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Onar, Nora. 2007. “Kemalists, Islamists and Liberals: Shifting Patterns of Confrontation and Consensus, 2002–06.” Turkish Studies 8:273–288.Google Scholar
Öniş, Ziya. 2006. “The Political Economy of Turkey's Justice and Development Party.” In The Emergence of a New Turkey: Democracy and the AK Parti, ed., Yavuz, M. Hakan.Salt Lake City, UT: University of Utah Press.Google Scholar
Öniş, Ziya. 1997. “The Political Economy of Islamic Resurgence in Turkey: The Rise of the Welfare Party in Perspective.” Third World Quarterly 18:743–766.Google Scholar
Öniş, Ziya, and Keyman, E. Fuat. 2003. “Turkey at the Polls: A New Path Emerges.” Journal of Democracy 14:95–107.Google Scholar
Özbudun, Ergün. 1990. “Turkey: Crises, Interruptions and Reequilibrations.: In Politics in Developing Countries: Comparing Experiences with Democracy. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers.Google Scholar
Özbudun, Ergün. 2000. Contemporary Turkish Politics: Challenges to Democratic Consolidation. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers.Google Scholar
Rabasa, Angel, and Larrabee, F. Stephen. 2008. The Rise of Political Islam in Turkey. Santa Monica, CA: RAND.Google Scholar
Rubin, Barry. 2002. “Turkey's Political Parties: A Remarkably Important Issue.” In Political Parties in Turkey, eds., Rubin, Barry, and Heper, Metin. Portland, OR: Frank Cass.Google Scholar
Salt, Jeremy. 1995. “Nationalism and the Rise of Muslim Sentiment in Turkey.” Middle Eastern Studies 31:13–27.Google Scholar
Sartori, Giovanni. 1976. Parties and Party System. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Sayarı, Sabri. 2002. “The Changing Party System.” In Politics, Parties an Elections in Turkey, eds., Sayarı, Sabri, and Esmer, Yilmaz. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers.Google Scholar
Sayarı, Sabri. 2007. “Towards a New Turkish Party System.” Turkish Studies 8:197–210.Google Scholar
Secor, A.J. 2001. “Ideologies in Crisis: Political Cleavages and Electoral Politics in Turkey in the 1990s.” Political Geography 20:539–560.Google Scholar
şekercioğlu, Eser, and Arıkan, Gizem. 2008. “Trends in Party System Indicators for July 2007 Turkish Elections.” Turkish Studies 9:213–231.Google Scholar
Somer, Murat. 2007. “Moderate Islam and Secularist Opposition in Turkey: Implications for the World, Muslims and Secular Democracy.” Third World Quarterly 28:1271–1289.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tachau, Frank. 2002. “An Overview of Electoral Behavior: Toward Protest or Consolidation of Democracy.” In Politics, Parties an Elections in Turkey, eds., Sayarı, Sabri, and Esmer, Yilmaz. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers.Google Scholar
Tank, Pınar. 2005. “Political Islam in Turkey: A State of Controlled Secularity.” Turkish Studies, 6:3–19.Google Scholar
Taşkın, Yüksel. 2008. “AKP's Move to 'Conquer' the Center Right: Its prospects and Possible Impacts on the Democratization Process.” Turkish Studies 9:53–72.Google Scholar
Tessler, Mark. 2002. “Islam and Democracy in the Middle East: The Impact of Religious Orientations on Attitudes towards Democracy in Four Arab Countries.” Comparative Politics 34:337–354.Google Scholar
Tezcür, Güneş Murat. 2009. “The Moderation Theory Revisited: The Case of Islamic Political Actors.” Party Politics :1–20.Google Scholar
White, Jenny B. 2002. Islamic Mobilization in Turkey: A Study in Vernacular Politics. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press.Google Scholar
Yavuz, Hakan. 1997. “Political Islam and the Welfare (Refah) Party in Turkey.” Comparative Politics 30:63–82.Google Scholar
Yavuz, Hakan. 2003. Islamic Political Identity in Turkey. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Yeşilada, Birol A. 2002a. “Realignment and Party Adaptation: The Case of the Refah and Fazilet Parties.” In Politics, Parties an Elections in Turkey, eds., Sayarı, Sabri, and Esmer, Yilmaz. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers.Google Scholar
Yeşilada, Birol A. 2002b. “The Virtue Party.” In Political Parties in Turkey, eds., Rubin, Barry, and Heper, Metin. London: Frank Cass PublishersGoogle Scholar
Yıldırım, Ergün, Inac, Hüsamettin, and Özler, Hayrettin. 2007. “A Sociological Representation of the Justice and Development Party: Is it a Political Design or A Political Becoming?” Turkish Studies 8:5–24.Google Scholar