Populism of Religious Conservative Parties in Turkey: A Psychoanalytical Approach

Abstract

Despite the growing number of works attempting to understand and explain the Justice and Development Party’s (JDP) populism, we possess limited insight into the longue durée of Islamic populism in Turkey and its pyscho-political origins. Therefore, this article highlights the lines of continuity and change in the populist strategy of Islamist parties with reference to the discourse of their leaders who managed to present their changing, growing, but partial support base as the totality of the people. Since social, economic, and political crises played a significant role in the rise of these Islamist parties in Turkey, this study relies on Laclau’s logic of populism blended with a Lacanian psychoanalysis, underlining the significance of crises in the formulation and articulation of populist demands. This study will thereby offer a new understanding of the rise of Islamist parties that successfully defined, redefined, and then redefined “the people” they claim to represent through a populist discourse and strategy in Turkey.