Unthinking the "Turkish Case"

Abstract

The essay proposes to critique ‘identity politics’ as an Orientalist discourse of imperial politics by unthinking the “Turkish case”. It argues that the intermingled processes of de-politicization, denationalization, de-secularization and the emergence of a hegemonic neo-liberal political rationality in the country have been concurrent paths leading to a metamorphosis of ‘democracy’. Taking up a political economy perspective, the essay also argues for the inevitable need of a paradigmatic shift, free of Orientalist residue, that must be geared towards an enhanced understanding of the relationship between a rising neo-conservative hegemony grasping the language of democracy and the endurance of a redistributive institutional structure.