Political science in the age of populism: perspectives from Turkey

This article discusses the impact of political transformations on political science in Turkey during the Justice and Development Party (AKP) period from 2002 to the present, with a particular focus on the experiences of political scientists. After first taking power and in accordance with its concerns about attaining domestic and international legitimacy, AKP launched a democratization process by implementing several reforms leading toward EU membership. During this process, the boundaries of politics were broadened, enabling political discussion of certain taboo topics. However, this trend was reversed after AKP’s authoritarian populist tendencies strengthened. The party’s growing anti-intellectualist stance has also made scholars the target of the government’s populist discourse. These circumstances make it critical to examine the challenges Turkey’s political scientists experience since their discipline is directly influenced by the boundaries of what is political. This study therefore explores these challenges through ten in-depth interviews conducted with political scientists. It finds that political scientists mostly engage in self-censorship to protect themselves under Turkey’s populist authoritarian atmosphere, which has narrowed down in-class discussion and research agendas leading to the impoverishment of the discipline in Turkey. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version of this article (10.1057/s41304-020-00310-w)