Why Turkey Is Authoritarian: From Atatürk to Erdoğan, by Halil Karaveli, Why Turkey Is Authoritarian: From Atatürk to Erdoğan, London: Pluto Press, 2018, 288 pp., ISBN 9780745337555.

Kalelioğlu, U.B.

Abstract

This review analyzes Halil Karaveli’s Why Turkey is Authoritarian, which explains the persistence of authoritarianism in Turkey through a structural and class-based framework. Rejecting cultural explanations centered on secular–Islamist conflict, Karaveli argues that continuity lies in the enduring alliance between state power and capitalist interests from the late Ottoman period to the Erdoğan era. While the book offers a compelling reinterpretation of Turkish political history, its strong structural emphasis at times limits attention to contingency and ideological differences.