The 2023 Turkish election: a tale of two campaigns and the duel of populisms

ABSTRACT

The 2023 Turkish elections marked a historic juncture in the nation’s political trajectory. Amidst economic, social, and political upheavals, coupled with a devastating earthquake, the elections served as a decisive evaluation of the newly inaugurated presidential system. With the incumbent Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi – AKP) lagging in polls for the first time in over twenty years, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of the People’s Alliance faced formidable opposition yet managed to score a victory in the second round. This article delves into the contrasting campaign strategies of the two leading candidates, Erdoğan and Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu. We argue that while Erdoğan’s campaign leaned on negative tactics and exclusionary populism, emphasizing counter-terrorism, identity politics, and regime maintenance, Kılıçdaroğlu’s strategy championed positive messaging buoyed by inclusive populism, spotlighting democratization, good governance, and regime change. Within an overarching competitive authoritarian context, these distinct strategies highlighted the intricate dynamics between campaign narratives and voter perception.

KEYWORDS:

• Populism
• negative campaigning
• turkish elections
• opposition
• competitive authoritarianism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. ‘Hanım’ is a traditional term used to refer to one’s wife in Turkish. ‘Hanimcilik’ denotes a husband who listens to his wife when making decisions and endeavors to provide comfort and support in any way possible.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Şebnem Yardımcı-Geyikçi

Dr. Şebnem Yardımcı-Geyikçi is Senior Research Associate in the Institute for Science and Ethics at the University of Bonn. Previously, she was associate professor of politics in the Department of Political Science and Public Administration at Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey. Her primary area of research is comparative politics with a special focus on parties and party systems in new democracies and autocracies. Her works on aspects of party politics, contentious politics, autocratization, and democratization in Turkey and beyond appeared in Party Politics, Democratization, Government and Opposition, PS: Politics and Political Science, Mediterranean Politics and the Political Quarterly. She received the Turkish Science Academy Young Scientist Award (BAGEP) in 2022.

Hakan Yavuzyilmaz

Dr. Hakan Yavuzyilmaz is teaching at the Department of Political Science and International Relations, Başkent University, Turkey. He is also Co-Director and Research and Policy Development Coordinator at Checks and Balances Network, Istanbul Policy Center, Sabancı University, Turkey. Previously, he was a post-doctoral researcher at Politics & International Relations Department, University of Nottingham, UK and Research Fellow at Research Center for Political Parties and Democracy (REPRESENT), UK. His research primarily focuses on political regimes, political parties, and party systems. His research has been published in journals such as Party Politics, Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies, and Southeast European and Black Sea Studies.