The Strongman Illusion

The Strongman Illusion

Turkey’s slide into authoritarianism was facilitated by collaborators, enablers, and an inept opposition.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has long been regarded as a model “strongman.” A cofounder of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), Erdoğan has served as mayor of Istanbul (1994–1998), prime minister (2003–2014), president in a parliamentary system (2014–2017), and president in an authoritarian regime (2018–present). During his time in power, he has been criticized for dismantling fragile checks and balances, enabling corruption, and suppressing dissent. In a world where authoritarian political figures and movements appear to draw inspiration from one another, Turkey’s trajectory offers significant insights.

When Turkey captured international headlines earlier this year, it was in connection with this broader context: Erdoğan was accused of attempting to eliminate his strongest political rival, current mayor of Istanbul Ekrem İmamoğlu of the Republican People’s Party (CHP). It was not the first time the law had been instrumentalized to obliterate opponents. But if this move succeeds, the current authoritarian regime risks turning into an autocracy where elections lose all significance.

The Turkish case illustrates how myriad actors contribute to the dynamics that enable a strongman. Authoritarian governments form gradually. Each infraction chips away at existing democratic regulations and institutions, imperfect as they may have been, paving the way for the next violation. This is a process to which not just the strongman contributes but also his enablers or allies, and even at times the opposition.

Among Erdoğan’s fiercest critics, for instance, are those who were once complicit in eroding Turkey’s institutions and legal norms, including some of the staunch loyalists of Erdoğan’s former ally Fethullah Gülen, a Muslim cleric who lived and died in self-imposed exile in the United States (and whose own organizational principles have been likened to Opus Dei’s). Today, these Gülenists denounce Erdoğan as if he were solely responsible for authoritarianism in Turkey. This conveniently obscures the substantial role that the secretive elites within their own organization played in cons...