Abstract

The literature on populism overwhelmingly deals with the factors behind the rise of populism: the supply factors, and the economic and political crises. However, there is a lack of engagement in the literature on the construction of populist narratives and especially on the relations between populist narratives and violence. This paper addresses these gaps. Based on an empirically rich case study of Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and its leader President Recep T. Erdoğan, it shows that the populist narrative of the party and its leader is necropolitical as it is based on narratives of martyrdom, blood and death. The paper also shows that to maintain authoritarian stability, the incumbents instrumentalise these populist necropolitical narratives for repression, legitimation and co-optation. We analyse this complex case by combining the literatures on populism, necropolitics, politics of martyrdom and authoritarianism, and contribute to all of them.

摘要

关于民粹主义的文献绝大多数涉及民粹主义兴起背后的因素：供给因素以及经济和政治危机。然而，关于民粹主义叙事构建的文献，尤其是民粹主义叙事与暴力之间的关系，缺乏参与。本文解决了这些差距。基于对土耳其执政的正义与发展党 (AKP) 及其领导人雷杰普·T·埃尔多安总统的经验丰富的案例研究，它表明该党及其领导人的民粹主义叙事是亡灵政治的，因为它基于殉难、血腥的叙事和死亡。该论文还表明，为了保持威权稳定，现任者将这些民粹主义的亡灵政治叙事工具化，以进行镇压、合法化和拉拢。