The European Legacy
Toward New Paradigms
ISSN: (Print) (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cele20
Social Democracy in Turkey: Global Questions,
Local Answers
Meral Ugur-Cinar & Ali Acikgoz
To cite this article: Meral Ugur-Cinar & Ali Acikgoz (2023): Social Democracy in Turkey: Global
Questions, Local Answers, The European Legacy, DOI: 10.1080/10848770.2023.2202466
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/10848770.2023.2202466
Published online: 25 Apr 2023.
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,THE EUROPEAN LEGACY
https://doi.org/10.1080/10848770.2023.2202466
Social Democracy in Turkey: Global Questions, Local Answers
Meral Ugur-Cinar and Ali Acikgoz
Department of Political Science and Public Administration, Bilkent University, 06800 Bilkent, Ankara, Turkey
ABSTRACT KEYWORDS
This article assesses the prospects of social democracy in Turkey in social democracy; Turkey;
light of two prominent debates regarding social democracy: the Republican People’s Party
challenge of populism and the proper balance between a politics of (CHP); competitive
redistribution and a politics of recognition. By focusing on the authoritarianism; populism
Republican People’s Party (CHP), it shows that the main problem
the party faces is to find ways of addressing the issues of recogni-
tion and redistribution. Success in addressing these issues would
provide an effective alternative to the populist agenda of the ruling
Justice and Development Party (AKP) and build channels for parti-
cipatory democracy and institutions of accountability. We argue
that social democracy, with its legacy of democratic rule and insti-
tutions, can serve as a significant anchoring point in such an effort.
We point out, however, why current social, institutional, political,
and cultural factors make the CHP’s task of pursuing a social demo-
cratic agenda in Turkey particularly difficult.
Introduction
The aim of this article is to discuss the major debates and dilemmas regarding the future
of social democracy in Turkey and how they relate to similar debates in other countries. It
also addresses the context-specific conditions facing social democracy in Turkey stem-
ming from the wider political context, such as its rising authoritarianism, and the political
dynamics involving intraparty democracy and factions. In doing so, the article brings
together insights from the theoretical and empirical literature on social democracy with
the specificities of the Turkish case to determine the challenges to and opportunities for
strengthening social democracy in Turkey.
In response to the current global political climate, including the rise of far-right,
populist parties and rising levels of economic inequality, there has been growing atten-
tion to social democracy as a political ideology. Thus the question of how best to under-
stand and categorize social democratic parties has gained fresh impetus in the aftermath
of a range of developments such as the Corbyn leadership of British Labor, the challenge
of climate breakdown, and the Covid-19 outbreak.1 Scholars have argued that social
democracy is best equipped to address the increasing visibility and outrageousness of
social inequalities following the pandemic.2 Sylvia Walby notes, for example, that a social
democracy perspective is best equipped to theorize the Covid crisis and its alternative
outcomes as well as to contest the “neoliberal restructuring of society” by championing
CONTACT Meral Ugur-Cinar meral.ugur@bilkent.edu.tr
© 2023 International Society for the Study of European Ideas
, 2 M. UGUR-CINAR AND A. ACIKGOZ
a solidaristic provision of welfare and economic interventions.3 It is therefore important to
discuss the prospects of and challenges to social democracy in specific countries—such as
Turkey—which is what we attempt to do in the present article.
The Republican People’s Party (Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi, CHP), the founding party of
modern Turkey and the biggest party to identify itself with social democracy, is our central
focus,4 which also enables us to situate the Turkish case in the broader context of the
debates and developments related to social democracy.5
Bringing Turkey into the debate also addresses the deficiency identified by Rob
Manwaring and Paul Kennedy in the current literature, which focuses “almost exclusively
on the family of European social democratic and labour parties” and thereby misses “a key
part of the wider story.”6 Moreover, in our attempt to embed Turkish social democracy in
this wider framework, we seek to remedy the problem identified by Rob Manwaring and
Josh Holloway of the tendency of studies on the subject of “talk(ing) past each other.”7
We begin by reviewing the two most pressing issues of social democracy in the
industrialized world, where it first developed, and then discuss how these issues apply
to the Turkish case. We argue that the first challenge social democracy faces across the
globe is its relationship with populism. The second issue it faces is how to provide
a holistic political alternative that purports an agenda of justice and equality, the two
values that are intrinsic to social democracy. We see this question as both a moral
commitment of social democracy and as a strategy to achieve its political goals, and
primarily the ability to win the hearts and minds of electoral majorities. We claim that the
issues of redistribution and the recognition of identities are key to such an agenda, and
are viewed by some as being in tension with each other, and by others as complementary.
We will then turn to Turkey and analyze the viability of and the political dilemmas faced
by social democracy there. More specifically, we will delve into the political and socio-
cultural circumstances that complicate the issues at hand in the Turkish case.
We suggest that bringing the question of redistribution to the forefront could poten-
tially prevent right-wing populism, including that of the ruling Justice and Development
Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, AKP), while diverting attention from identity-based
cleavages to issues that cut across groups. Our discussion will also show that neither
redistributive policy proposals nor claims to redress identity issues are sufficient on their
own to address Turkey’s complex problems such as the process of democratic backsliding.
As the pressing issues of the Turkish case will show, there is no formula for the successful
combination of redistribution and recognition solutions since these depend on both
historical and current injustices and social cleavages.
Our findings also point to the pivotal role social democracy can play in democratiza-
tion. With its emphasis on institutions and justice, social democracy can play a central role
in democratization and a counterbalancing role against the threat of populism and
competitive authoritarianism both in Turkey and in other increasingly authoritarian set-
tings that limit its power base by curbing its messages and by securitization, manipula-
tion, and persecution of its actors.
Methodologically, we will take a within-case process tracing approach,8 and substanti-
ate our arguments with textual and discursive evidence from Turkish politics. We will
examine historical and contemporary evidence in order to identify continuity and change
in the prospects of and challenges faced by the CHP on the road to social democracy.
Where applicable, we will note critical junctures and turning points of the CHP to provide
