The civic and political participation of young people in a context of heightened authoritarianism. The case of Turkey

ABSTRACT

Applying insights from research on civic and political participation, this study focuses on the effects that the recent authoritarian turn taken by Turkey had on the expression of participatory behaviours by young people. The analysis brings about a number of contentious issues and intertwines two recent dynamics. First of all recent events (such as the protests associated with the occupygezi movement) show that youth in Turkey are extremely important players and political actors. Secondly, however, the authoritarian turn taken by the country under the AKP’s governance resulted in serious and alarming limitations to the exercise of basic freedoms and hence participatory behaviours. Based on the results of 40 semi-structured interviews with young people involved in civil society organisations, the article discusses three aspects: young people’s views of active citizenship; the instruments of empowerment that stimulate participatory behaviours and the significance attributed to different means of civic and political participation. The analysis reveals the complexity of active citizenship in a context of heightened authoritarianism and underlines the constraints put on the exercise of civic and political participation by the current government. It also unpacks the alarming consequences of the AKP agenda on the expression of freedoms, with a particular focus on the repression of participatory behaviours.

KEYWORDS:

• Political participation
• civic participation
• active citizenship
• youth
• Turkey
• authoritarianism

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Dr Stavroula Chrona for her valuable comments on earlier versions of my article. I am also grateful to the two anonymous reviewers for their constructive insights. Their feedback has proved to be essential in order to improve my manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Art. 58 of the Turkish Constitution assigned specific roles to youth. The article states that: The State shall take measures to ensure the education and development of the youth into whose keeping our independence and our Republic are entrusted, in the light of positive science, in line with the principles and reforms of Atatürk, and in opposition to ideas aiming at the destruction of the indivisible integrity of the State with its territory and nation. The State shall take necessary measures to protect youth from addiction to alcohol and drugs, crime, gambling, and similar vices and ignorance.

2 The Project PIDOP (Processes Influencing Democratic Ownership and Participation) financed by the 7FP aimed at the analysis of civic and political engagement and participaton in 8 European countries. Full details on the Project can be found at: http://www.fahs.surrey.ac.uk/pidop/

3 The four cities were selected because of their geographical location but also because of the presence of different umbrella networks of youth organisations active in the application for EU funding. The research team also attempted to include a number of participants in Ankara and Gaziantep without success.

Additional information

Funding

The research reported in this article was supported by a grant received from the European Commission’s 7th Framework Programme, Intra-European Fellowships (IEF) FP7 People: Marie-Curie Actions, Grant Agreement no: 625977, Title: The europeanisation of the Organised Civil Society in Turkey. The case of the Youth organisations in the prospect of the European Integration (EUROCS).