What is it about?
This chapter examines how Erdoğan and the AKP have redefined sovereignty: the authority to govern and decide in the name of “the people.” It places their promise to restore popular power against a history in which military, judicial and bureaucratic elites supervised political participation. It then explores how this promise supports the concentration of authority around the leader, the portrayal of dissent as a threat, and symbolic acts such as Hagia Sophia’s reconversion. These claims also shape Turkey’s actions abroad.
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Why is it important?
Why is it important? A government can promise to empower citizens while narrowing the range of voices recognised as legitimate. Understanding this tension helps explain how historical grievances, collective emotions and decisive leadership can sustain concentrated power. It also connects questions of democratic accountability at home with assertions of sovereignty internationally.
Perspectives
At Gezi, I witnessed young peaceful protesters seeking freedom and dialogue. The contrast between that experience and their portrayal as enemies of “the people” brings this chapter’s central question into focus for me: who gets included in the people, and who is denied a voice? I want to understand how claims of popular empowerment reshape authority, and whether they leave room for difference, disagreement and dialogue.
Dr Spyros Sofos
Simon Fraser University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Populism and the Rewriting of Sovereignty in Turkey, July 2026, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.4324/9781003665830-4.
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