Imren Borsuk, Pınar Dinç, Sinem Kavak, and Pınar Sayan, eds. “Consolidating and Contesting Authoritarian Neoliberalism in Turkey: Towards a Framework.” In Authoritarian Neoliberalism and Resistance in Turkey: Construction, Consolidation, and Contestation, pp. 11-59. Singapore: Springer Singapore, 2021.
This chapter examines Turkey’s transformation from a hopeful democratic state to a key example of democratic backsliding under the Justice and Development Party (AKP). It highlights how authoritarian neoliberalism—characterized by executive centralization, autocratic legalism, cronyism, and repression—has consolidated power through legal and extra-legal means. Lawyers and legal actors play crucial roles both in enabling autocratic legalism (through manipulation of the legal system) and in contesting authoritarianism via litigation and network-building. Their role illustrates how attorneys in backsliding democracies can either be co-opted into authoritarian consolidation or become active agents of resistance within constrained legal and political frameworks.