The reproduction of fear in populist discourse: an analysis of campaign speeches by the Justice and Development Party elites

ABSTRACTThis paper scrutinizes the reproduction of fear in the populist discourse of the Justice and Development Party and provides a content analysis of campaign speeches between 2015 and 2018. We posit that the linkage between populism and fear derives from two frames, victimization and blaming, appealing to perceived threat and insecurity that deepens the construction of ‘us-vs-them’ group differentiation. We argue that the AKP’s campaign in the 2015 elections frames security, value, and competing narratives by emphasizing terrorism, clashes with the ‘others’, and the opposition’s lack of capacity to rule. Their campaign in the 2017 referendum articulates a crisis and issue-based narrative over the coup attempt and constitutional amendments, and the 2018 campaign featured an issue, value, and security-based narrative. The findings show various continuities and changes in the AKP narratives based on exploiting citizens’ threat perceptions, with broad fear-based narratives remaining constant while the specifics of the threat adapt to the political atmosphere of the time.KEYWORDS: Populismfearemotionselectionselectoral campaignsAKP Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1. After the coup attempt, the government initiated numerous institutional changes in different spheres. Moreover, the official names of the Bosphorus Bridge, bus terminal, parks, and bus stops were changed to commemorate 15 July. Reforms on the military, Turkish Armed Forces, military schools, curricula, and institutions have been instituted. New decree laws were induced to dismiss civil servants, launch cases, close institutions such as universities, trade unions, newspapers, associations, television channels, schools, and so on, and trustees were appointed to typically elected municipal offices.2. This, however, also resulted in a split from the MHP, as those who largely opposed aligning with the AKP formed the oppositional İYİ Party (Good Party).3. For details, see Popping (Citation2018).4. Please also see Rooduijn and Pauwels (Citation2011).5. You can find the complete list of speeches in the Appendix, along with its location and details.Additional informationNotes on contributorsTuğçe ErçetinTuğçe Erçetin is an Assistant Professor at Istanbul Bilgi University of International Relations Department. She holds master’s degrees in Political Science and International Relations from the University of Essex and Istanbul Bilgi University; also she has a doctoral degree in Political Science from Istanbul Bilgi University. She has been a researcher in different projects on othering, populism, polarization, refugees and social entrepreneurship, civil society and volunteerism.Emre ErdoğanEmre Erdoğan is Professor at Istanbul Bilgi University of International Relations Department. With a doctoral degree in Political Science from Boğaziçi University, he has served as researcher and senior consultant in various projects in academia and civil society. His research focuses on political participation, foreign policy and public opinion, child and youth well-being, methodology and statistics. He extensively studies and publishes about youth in Turkey, integration of Syrian refugee youth in Turkey, othering, polarization and populism.