Reflecting on The Oppositional Discourses Against the AKP’s Neoliberalism and Searching for a New Vision for Feminist Counter Politics

Abstract

Focusing on discourses that are critical of the AKP’s neoliberal regime, in power for the past fifteen years in “Turkey”, this paper aims to reflect on the conceptual settings and vocabulary that have been used by, not only feminist intellectuals/activists, but also other political groups who have been critical of the AKP’s politics. Since feminist counter discourses are considered an interactive part of the public opinion-building process, instead of focusing only on the arguments of feminist intellectuals and activists, critical discourses of different oppositional groups, including feminist ones, are analysed in relational and historical terms. In this paper, the AKP’s long lasting hegemony will be analysed in two different phases. In each phase, there are important changes in the discursive framework of oppositional groups, as the AKP’s governmentality or governmental rationality (strategy to construct social consensus) shifts from conservative-neoliberal to a more authoritarian neoliberal mode. The paper argues that despite their success in scrutinising the Kemalist nationalism and modernisation project, any of those counter-critical positions, including feminist opposition, could be effective against the AKP’s hegemonic rule based on neoliberalism. This argument resonates with Fraser’s* historical analysis of second-wave feminism’s failure against neoliberalism in the West, in respect to the transformation to a post-Fordist, transnational, and neoliberal capitalism. Despite being critical of Fraser’s approach, I find the following question very relevant: has there been a subterranean elective affinity between second-wave feminism conjointly with its New Left counterpart, and neoliberalism? This is a hot topic of discussion for feminists in the AKP’s second period. The paper finally analyses different theoretical-political positions and discursive limits of this debate, which seems very productive for any oppositional group to develop a more comprehensive and sophisticated theoretical analysis of noeliberalism. Providing an alternative theoretical framework that bypasses the failures of the above-mentioned positions is another issue going beyond the limits of this paper.* Fraser, Nancy; Henry A. and Louise Loeb, (2007) “Feminist Politics in the Age of Recognition: A Two-Dimensional Approach to Gender Justice”, Studies in Social Justice, Volume 1, Number 1, Winter 2007; Fraser, Nancy (2009), “Feminism, Capitalism and the Cunning of History”, New Left Review, Mart-April, p. 97-117; Fraser, Nancy (2013), Fortunes of Feminism: From State-Managed Capitalism to Neoliberal Crisis, London and New York: Verso.