Beyond a political party :|the AKP machine and its organizational capacity

Abstract

Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi (AKP) has been in power in Turkey since 2002. Since the beginning, the party successfully managed to increase its effect on the politics. The AKP also has not lost its popular vote base despite the fact that the party adopted different policies and discourses. Studies mostly fo-cused on the AKP’s ideology, economic policies and foreign policy agenda. Especially the party’s economic policies are taken into consideration to explain its effect on its constituents. However, from its foundation to today, AKP has chosen to appeal to the people when it has faced a threat against its legiti-macy and existence. The party has a confidence to organize voters/citizens during moments of crisis. This thesis argues that AKP’s one of the most im-portant aspects is its ability to organize different segments of the society. From this point this thesis delves into the characteristics of the AKP’s grassroots organization which is one of the missed angles by the researchers conducted about the AKP. Theories about political parties have explained the role of political parties as organizing popular vote base for either representing a certain ideology on the state level or satisfying personal ambitions of politicians. However, in this thesis I argue that the AKP moved beyond a political party on the account of its disciplined and ceaselessly working grassroots organization. Considering the history of political Islam in Turkey, this thesis further asserts that the AKP professionalized a certain organizational model which it inherited from Milli Görüş Movement.