ABSTRACT
Chapter 10 studies Erdoğan and the Justice and Development Party (JDP) in Turkey as a case of populism. It argues that, to a great extent, the JDP owes its political success to a “low” socio-cultural appeal, as conceptualized by Ostiguy. Following the approach and methods proposed by Ostiguy, it shows that the JDP’s elite and Erdoğan appealed to the so-called “poor in their own homeland, pariah[s] in their own country” not only through their words but also through their images, performances, and political practices. After providing some brief historical, theoretical, and empirical background to the populist dimension of Turkish politics, it focusses on the populist appeal of Erdoğan and the JDP as well as the anti-populist reaction it provoked. Therefore, this chapter is also an attempt to demonstrate the discursive and performative struggles between populism and anti-populism to define the people.
