Erdoğan’s Türkiye : A descriptive idea analysis of the classification of the Turkish regime under Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s leadership based on Daniel Silander’s regime ideal types and four dimensions

When the Swedish foreign minister stated that Türkiye is a clear democracy with a democratic elected government, the debate concerning the classification of the Turkish regime was revived. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to classify the Turkish regime during each of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s period of leadership as prime minster and president, by applying Daniel Silander’s theoretical framework of regime ideal types. Further, will each time period be analyzed through Silander’s four dimensions, ideology, leadership, political parties and civil society, to enable a regime classification where a comparison of the development of the dimensions between the time periods also will be carried out. The research questions are methodological answered through a qualitive case study within-case comparations, employing a descriptive idea analysis. The result indicates that the regime during Erdoğan’s prime ministership can be classified as a hybrid regime with features of the authoritarian regime. In contrast, the presidential period can be classified as a partially hybrid regime with elements of both totalitarian and authoritarian regimes. The dimension ideology has moved from the hybrid regimes element to tendencies within the ideal type of totalitarian regime. Moreover, the leadership dimension has evolved from the characteristics of the authoritarian regime to the hybrid regimes element, whereas the dimensions of political parties during the two time periods is status quo retaining traits of the hybrid regime. Finally, the dimension of civil society has developed from the elements of the hybrid regime to features of the authoritarian regime.