The University in the Making of Authoritarian Turkey

Increasing access to higher education is often perceived as a threat to authoritarian regimes because, as liberal theory suggests, universities would cultivate critical citizenry and oppositional politics. However, Turkey, under the leadership of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, contradicts this assumption and necessitates a rethinking of the relationship between the university and democracy. Although university-educated sections of society are generally more embracive of democratic values, universities have also played an important role in nationalist indoctrination, elite reproduction, and class inequality. Moreover, emerging evidence indicates the role of universities in authoritarian regimes. This paper focuses on the double processes of the remarkable growth of access to universities associated with democratization in liberal theory and the simultaneous intensification and consolidation of authoritarian rule in Turkey. It argues that the changes in higher education have not only been a reflection of Erdoğan’s autocratic rule but also serve as one of its building blocks. Universities fulfill this function by extending political patronage to new clientele and fortifying control and coercion among students and academics, who have historically been central to democratic politics in the country