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ABSTRACT
The Workers’ Party (Partido dos Trabalhadores – PT) in Brazil and the Justice and Development Party (Kalkınma ve Adalet Partisi – AKP) in Turkey came to power in 2002 with promises of maintaining economic growth, social justice and political stability. Initially, both governments experienced some success. However, both countries experienced political turmoil as a result of the corruption allegations in the early 2010s. This study compares these cases to analyze what allowed the AKP government to cover up and overcome the corruption allegations whereas the PT government could not. This study concludes that populist characteristics in political strategies of Turkey’s President Erdoğan allowed him to maintain his ruling through suppression of all opposition movements and voices, while Brazilian President Rousseff did not implement the same strategies and consequently lost power.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes on contributor
Nilay Onbaşı is a PhD candidate in International Relations at Eastern Mediterranean University, where she is currently a teaching and research assistant. She completed her BA and MA in Political Science and International Relations at Middle East Technical University, North Cyprus Campus. Her research areas are political economy, poverty and inequality. She mainly concentrates on Latin America and Turkey. She has presented papers at conferences in Turkey and abroad.
Notes
1 Yeşilada, “The Virtue Party,” and Heper and Toktaş, “Islam, modernity and democracy.” Erdoğan became a member of the Islamist National Salvation Party (Milli Selamet Partisi, MSP) in 1976, but after the 1980 military coup, this party was closed. Erdoğan and followers of Necmettin Erbakan joined the Welfare Party (Refah Partisi, RP), and Erdoğan served as mayor of Istanbul from 1994 to 1998. In 1998, the RP was found guilty for threatening secularism and was shut down by the Turkish constitutional court. Erdoğan was imprisoned for four months. In 2001, he established the Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, AKP), a conservative but economically liberal party contrary to the economic understanding of the RP. Under Erdoğan, the AKP won 34.3 percent of votes in the 2002 election and Erdoğan became the prime minister in 2003 after the AKP annulled his ban from political office. In 2014, he was elected as the President of Turkey.
2 Jain, “Corruption: A Review”; Shleifer and Vishny, “Corruption”; and Bardhan, “Corruption and Development.”
3 Shleifer and Vishny, “Corruption.”
4 Basinger, “Scandals and Congressional Elections”; Pereira and Melo, “Reelecting Corrupt Incumbents”; and Ferraz and Finan, “Exposing Corrupt Politicians.”
5 Manzetti and Wilson, “Why Do Corrupt Governments,” and Aidt, Golden and Tiwari, “Incumbents and Criminals.”
6 Memoli, “Government, Scandals,” and Carlin, Love and Martinez-Gallardo, “Cushioning the Fall.”
7 Canache and Alison, “Perceptions of Political Corruption.”
8 Juca, Melo and Renno, “The Political Cost of Corruption.”
9 Kingstone and Ponce, “From Cardoso to Lula.”
10 Aytaç and Öniş, “Varities of populism.”
11 Seligson, “The Democracy Barometers,” 89.
12 Hawkins, “Is Chavez Populist?”
13 Laclau, On Populist Reason.
14 Moffitt, “The Global Rise of Populism,” 55.
15 Seligson, “The Democracy Barometers,” 82.
16 Hawkins, “Is Chavez Populist?” and Seligson, “The Democracy Barometers.”
17 Weyland, “The Threat from the Populist Left.”
18 Barr, “The Persistence of Neopopulism.”
19 Yeşilada, “The future of Erdoğan.”
20 Seligson, “The Democracy Barometers.”
21 Melo, “Crisis and Integrity in Brazil,” and Van Dijk, “How Globo Media.”
22 Özbudun, “AKP at the Crossroads.”
23 Müller, What Is Populism?
24 De la Torre, “Populist Seduction in Latin America,” 117.
25 Seligson, “The Democracy Barometers,” and Müller, What Is Populism?
26 Laclau, On Populist Reason.
27 Aytaç and Öniş, “Varieties of Populism.”
28 French, “Understanding the Politics.”
29 Hawkins, “Is Chavez Populist?”
30 French, “Understanding the Politics.”
31 Hawkins, “Is Chavez Populist?”
32 Yin, Case Study Research, 18.
33 Juca, Renno, and Melo, “The Political Cost of Corruption.”
34 Richard, “Brazil’s Landmark Anti-corruption Law.”
35 Ibid.
36 Ibid. It was argued that in the Mensalao case, public funds were given to parties for political support of Lula in Congress.
37 Juca, Renno and Melo, “The Political Cost of Corruption.”
38 Balan, “Surviving Corruption in Brazil.”
39 Müller, What Is Populism?.
40 Balan, “Surviving Corruption in Brazil,” 82.
41 Saad-Filho and Morais, “Mass Protests.”
42 Melo, “Crisis and Integrity in Brazil,” and Saad-Filho and Morais, “Mass Protests.”
43 Saad-Filho and Morais, “Mass Protests,” 236.
44 Saad-Filho, “Mass Protests under Left Neoliberalism,” and La Botz, “Brazil.”
45 Saad-Filho and Morais, “Mass Protests.”
46 Winters and Weitz-Shapiro, “Partisan Protesters.”
47 Saad-Filho and Morais, “Mass Protests,” 238.
48 Ibid.
49 Richard, “Brazil’s Landmark Anti-corruption Law.”
50 Doval and Actis, “The Political and Economic Instability.”
51 Ibid., 122.
52 Almeida and Zagaris, “Political Capture.”
53 Macaulay, “Dilma Rousseff (2011-2016).”
54 Almeida and Zagaris, “Political Capture”
55 Ibid., 88.
56 Folha de Sao Paulo “Rossi Falls and Dilma Loses Her 4th Minister in Eight Months”.
57 Balan, “Surviving Corruption in Brazil,” 82.
58 Braig, Power, and Renno, “Brazil 2015 and Beyond.”
59 Balan, “Surviving Corruption in Brazil.”
60 Almeida and Zagaris, “Political Capture.”
61 Ibid., 90.
62 Ibid., 91.
63 Melo, “Crisis and Integrity in Brazil.”
64 Macaulay, “Dilma Rousseff (2011-2016).”
65 Ibid.
66 Ibid.
67 Ibid., 137.
68 Ibid.
69 Ulusoy, “Turkey’s Fight Against Corruption.”
70 Ibid., 3.
71 Ibid.
72 Özhan, “The Longest Year,” 79.
73 Ibid., 80.
74 Ibid.
75 Özbudun, “AKP at the Crossroads.” In this case, the AKP government gave the police the right to use disproportionate force.
76 Sezal and Sezal, “Dark Taints,” and Esen and Gumuscu, “Rising Competitive Authoritarianism.”
77 Derman and Oba, “Making a Determination.”
78 Özhan, “The Longest Year.”
79 Taşpınar, “The End of the Turkish Model.”
80 Ibid.
81 Ulusoy, “Turkey’s Fight Against Corruption.”
82 Financial Times “Turkey Economy Chief.”
83 Ulusoy, “Turkey’s Fight Against Corruption.”
84 Özhan, “The Longest Year,” 86. The Gülen Movement, which emerged as a religious movement toward the end of the 1970s, focused its energies on education activities in the late 1980s.
85 Özhan, “The Longest Year,” and Simet et al., “The Impact.”
86 Özhan, “The Longest Year.”
87 Ulusoy, “Turkey’s Fight Against Corruption.”
88 Tattersall and Butler, “Turkey Dismisses Corruption Case.”
89 Taşpınar, “The End of the Turkish Model.”
90 Özbudun, “Pending Challenges.”
91 Özbudun, “AKP at the Crossroads,” and “Pending Challenges”
92 Simet et al., “The Impact.”
93 Ibid.
94 Taşpınar, “The End of the Turkish Model.”
95 Ibid. and Simet et al., “The Impact.”
96 Aytaç and Öniş, “Varieties of Populism.”
97 Hürriyet, “TBMM komisyonunun.” Bengi Yıldız, the only HDP member of the Commission, left the Commission by criticizing the broadcast ban and arguing that the commission was not handling the issue properly.
98 Ibid.
99 Hürriyet, “17 Aralık.”
100 Günay, “Is Political Risk Still an Issue?” and Ulusoy, “Turkey’s Fight Against Corruption.”
101 One can also note that Erdoğan won a referendum in 2017to change Turkey’s political system and wwas re-elected president in 2018.
102 Melo, “Crisis and Integrity in Brazil.”
103 Van Dijk, “How Globo Media.”
104 Ibid., 224.
105 Müller, What Is Populism?
106 Jansen, “Populist Mobilization.”
107 Özbudun, “Pending Challenges in Turkey’s Judiciary.”
108 Taşpınar, “The End of the Turkish Model.”
109 Porto, Media Power and Democratization, and Matos, Journalism and Political Democracy.
110 O Globe newspaper is the most outstanding print publication in Brazil which is published by Grupo Globo, Brazil's largest media group.
111 Van Dijk, “How Globo Media.”
112 Ibid.
113 Ibid., 202.
114 Ibid.
115 Ibid., 224.
116 Human Rights Watch, Turkey: Silencing the Media, and Orucoğlu, “How President Erdoğan.”
117 Orucoğlu, “How President Erdoğan.”
118 Evrensel Daily “What Does the Sale.”
119 Van Dijk, “How Globo Media,” 223–4.
120 Taşpınar, “The End of the Turkish Model.”
121 Human Rights Watch, Turkey: Silencing the Media.