Authoritarianism Debates: The Ongoing Formation of the State in Turkey - by Melehat Kutun (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

This methodological, theoretical and empirical contribution focuses on how the classical political-economic and sociological approaches that have long prevailed in studies on the state and authoritarianism reproduce or update themselves in the particularity of Turkey. It considers the "strong state tradition thesis" and its contemporary versions, "new-developmentalism" and "competitive authoritarianism", to be variants or adaptations of the classical political-economic and sociological approaches, questioning why these new concepts are needed and what is, in their view, "new" since 2011 in the politics of Turkey. It problematises the ways these approaches are reproduced in the contexts of varied countries' own peculiarities and Turkey's specifically. It focuses on how these approaches have been transformed and updated while explaining recent political developments in Turkey and it presents an open-Marxist critique and a comprehensive explanation of authoritarianism contextualised amongst the other prominent discussions in Marxist state theory. It presents a multi-disciplinary approach that builds bridges between state theory, methodological concerns and contemporary politics in Turkey, focusing on the period since 2010 but with particular consideration of both the continuities and ruptures with the previous period.

From the Back Cover

This methodological, theoretical and empirical contribution focuses on how the classical political-economic and sociological approaches that have long prevailed in studies on the state and authoritarianism reproduce or update themselves in the particularity of Turkey. It considers the "strong state tradition thesis" and its contemporary versions, "new-developmentalism" and "competitive authoritarianism", to be variants or adaptations of the classical political-economic and sociological approaches, questioning why these new concepts are needed and what is, in their view, "new" since 2011 in the politics of Turkey. It problematises the ways these approaches are reproduced in the contexts of varied countries' own peculiarities and Turkey's specifically. It focuses on how these approaches have been transformed and updated while explaining recent political developments in Turkey and it presents an open-Marxist critique and a comprehensive explanation of authoritarianism contextualised amongst the other prominent discussions in Marxist state theory. It presents a multi-disciplinary approach that builds bridges between state theory, methodological concerns and contemporary politics in Turkey, focusing on the period since 2010 but with particular consideration of both the continuities and ruptures with the previous period.

Melehat Kutun is a Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung Research Fellow based in the International Research Group on Authoritarianism and Counter-Strategies (IRGAC) at Kassel University, Germany.

About the Author

Melehat Kutun is a political and social scientist who worked as an assistant professor at Mersin University until 2016, when she lost her position alongside many other Academics for Peace. Consequently, she had to leave Turkey and continue her research in Germany. She is currently working at the University of Kassel on her own project, The Reshaping of Abortion Politics in Turkey: Understanding Islamic Right-Wing Populism Through the Differing Experiences of Three Groups of Gynaecologists, which is supported by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft). She is also an associate fellow of IRGAC (International Research Group on Authoritarianism and Counter-Strategies) based at the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation. Her publications focus on contemporary politics in Turkey, critical state theories, critical gender studies and abortion politics, and forced political migration. She recently co-authored the publications Regime Change in Turkey: Neoliberal Authoritarianism, Islamism and Hegemony (Routledge, 2021) and Exiled Intellectuals: Encounters, Conflicts, and Experiences in a Transnational Context (two volumes, Palgrave Macmillan, 2024).