The political economy of Turkish democracy

Political economists often observe a positive long-term correlation between economic and political development. The Turkish case is no exception in that policy strategies, distributive preferences and wider institutional arrangements in much of the country’s multiparty history have displayed a congruous path, producing continuous growth and democratic progress despite short-lived economic crises and political breakdowns. The current period of relative economic stagnation and democratic backpedalling is therefore unusual. The analysis presented here argues that this democratic relapse is tightly entwined with Turkey’s deepening middle-income trap. Among the main factors underlying this synchronous fall in economic and political fortunes are highly problematic state-business relations, clientelistic patterns of articulating popular interests, and dramatic institutional degeneration over the past decade undermining both narrow and broad institutions