ABSTRACT
This chapter will describe the AKP’s ideology, first, as an expression of its organizational “identity” and, second, as a “signal” to voters and supporters, which is used by the party’s leadership strategically to position itself in Turkey’s complicated electoral “market.” The key question is how the party’s official ideology reflects the dilemma described in the first and second chapters: the party leadership needs to find a credible balance between the AKP’s “systemness” – including a degree of truth to its traditional core values – and “autonomy,” which requires a degree of moderation in order to attract the median voter (an electoral majority) and to create alliances with other veto players.
