Measuring Populist Discourse of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has long been considered a populist leader. This study attempts to investigate the evolution of Erdoğan’s populist discourse by examining his political campaign speeches throughout all years of his rule. Using computer-based quantitative content analysis, we analyze the dimensi...

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Main Authors: Furkan Çay, Assem Kalkamanova
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: International Association for Political Science Students (IAPSS) 2023-10-01
Series:Politikon
Subjects:
Online Access:https://politikon.iapss.org/index.php/politikon/article/view/398
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author Furkan Çay
Assem Kalkamanova
author_facet Furkan Çay
Assem Kalkamanova
author_sort Furkan Çay
collection DOAJ
description Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has long been considered a populist leader. This study attempts to investigate the evolution of Erdoğan’s populist discourse by examining his political campaign speeches throughout all years of his rule. Using computer-based quantitative content analysis, we analyze the dimensions of populism in Erdoğan’s speeches over time. Our data includes 42 election campaign speeches held between 2004 and 2018. We demonstrate how three dimensions of populism (people-centrism, anti-elitism, moralistic imagination of politics) manifest in Erdoğan’s speeches and how Erdoğan’s degree of populism varies from one election campaign to another. People-centrist approach constitutes the largest share of his discourse in comparison to other dimensions throughout all campaign speeches. Erdoğan’s anti-elitist rhetoric was insignificant during the initial period of his incumbency. However, it increased considerably in the 2014 and 2018 election campaigns. We connect these empirical trends to the particular events in Turkish politics. Thus, this study contributes to the field by providing an empirical approach to Erdoğan’s speeches.
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spelling doaj.art-56e422ba70614ece86528bb8e3cf572c2023-10-02T06:24:59ZengInternational Association for Political Science Students (IAPSS)Politikon2414-66332023-10-015510.22151/politikon.55.1Measuring Populist Discourse of Recep Tayyip ErdoğanFurkan Çay0Assem Kalkamanova1University of SzegedUniversity of Szeged Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has long been considered a populist leader. This study attempts to investigate the evolution of Erdoğan’s populist discourse by examining his political campaign speeches throughout all years of his rule. Using computer-based quantitative content analysis, we analyze the dimensions of populism in Erdoğan’s speeches over time. Our data includes 42 election campaign speeches held between 2004 and 2018. We demonstrate how three dimensions of populism (people-centrism, anti-elitism, moralistic imagination of politics) manifest in Erdoğan’s speeches and how Erdoğan’s degree of populism varies from one election campaign to another. People-centrist approach constitutes the largest share of his discourse in comparison to other dimensions throughout all campaign speeches. Erdoğan’s anti-elitist rhetoric was insignificant during the initial period of his incumbency. However, it increased considerably in the 2014 and 2018 election campaigns. We connect these empirical trends to the particular events in Turkish politics. Thus, this study contributes to the field by providing an empirical approach to Erdoğan’s speeches. https://politikon.iapss.org/index.php/politikon/article/view/398content analysiselection campaignsRecep Tayyip Erdoğan Turkish politicsTurkish populism
spellingShingle Furkan Çay
Assem Kalkamanova
Measuring Populist Discourse of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
Politikon
content analysis
election campaigns
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
Turkish politics
Turkish populism
title Measuring Populist Discourse of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
title_full Measuring Populist Discourse of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
title_fullStr Measuring Populist Discourse of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
title_full_unstemmed Measuring Populist Discourse of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
title_short Measuring Populist Discourse of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
title_sort measuring populist discourse of recep tayyip erdogan
topic content analysis
election campaigns
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
Turkish politics
Turkish populism
url https://politikon.iapss.org/index.php/politikon/article/view/398
work_keys_str_mv AT furkancay measuringpopulistdiscourseofreceptayyiperdogan
AT assemkalkamanova measuringpopulistdiscourseofreceptayyiperdogan