CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2025
| Author | Temizyurek, Ceren |
|---|---|
| Title | The Sultan Has No Development: Turkey And The Akps Non-Developmental State |
| Summary | This thesis critically examines Turkey’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) and its claim to developmentalism, interrogating the gap between its grandiose economic rhetoric and its actual governance outcomes. While the AKP has consistently presented itself as a modernizing force—invoking nationalist narratives of growth and revival—Turkey has experienced premature deindustrialization, deepening technological dependency, and stalled structural transformation under its rule. Through a theoretically grounded analysis informed by developmental state literature, the thesis investigates both the discursive and material dimensions of AKP rule. It argues that the party’s use of developmentalist language functions less as a coherent policy program than as a legitimizing tool—sustaining political loyalty through deferred promises and symbolic spectacle. Despite gestures toward state intervention, the AKP lacks the ideational commitment and institutional capacity characteristic of developmental states. The study reveals that Turkey under the AKP exemplifies what Elizabeth Thurbon terms a “non-developmental state”—a regime marked by ad hoc economic governance, politicized state–capital relations, and the displacement of structural reform by clientelist redistribution. Crucially, the thesis contends that developmentalism was never a genuine ideological priority for the AKP, which has consistently privileged political Islam and regime consolidation over long-term economic transformation. As such, the party’s developmentalist narrative is best understood as performative rather than transformative, offering the illusion of progress while preserving a status quo that undermines genuine development. |
| Supervisor | Inna Melnykovska |
| Department | Political Science MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2025/temizyurek_ceren.pdf |
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