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ID: 113815

Strategic depth or hegemonic depth? a critical realist analysis of Turkey’s position in the world system / Yalvac, Faruk

Yalvac, Faruk	Journal Article
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2012.

Summary/Abstract

This paper is an attempt to provide a critical realist analysis of the concept of 'strategic depth' recently being used in analysing Turkish foreign policy. The article provides a criticism of the realist geopolitical thinking on which the concept of strategic depth is based using the insights of the critical realist philosophy of science. It takes the concept of ontological depth from critical realism and extends it to Gramsci's analysis and develops the concept of hegemonic depth. Underlying the concept of hegemonic depth is the idea that geopolitical relations should be thought of in connection with the social structures that give rise to them. The article is intended as a contribution to a historical materialist analysis of Turkish foreign policy where a state-centric positivism dominates, as well as an attempt to develop a social theory of foreign policy based on critical realism.

Key Words

Turkish Foreign Policy ; Strategic Depth ; Critical Realism ; Gramscian IR Theory ; Ontological Depth ; Hegemonic Depth

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ID: 168876

Understanding populist politics in Turkey: a hegemonic depth approach / Yalvaç, Faruk

Yalvaç, Faruk	Journal Article
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Summary/Abstract

The aim of this article is to understand populism as a hegemonic project involving a struggle for power between different social forces. We take a critical realist approach in defining populism. This implies several things. We develop a new approach to understanding populist politics by taking neither a purely discursive (Laclau), nor a solely structural (Poulantzas), but a critical realist approach and analysing the three-way relationship between structural conditions, agency, and institutional framework. Second, it implies that populist politics is composed of complex and often contradictory dynamics and emergent features involving mainly domestic but also international processes. We develop this through a combination of three concepts – passive revolution, hegemonic depth, and partial hegemony. These indicate how a hegemonic project is situated in deeper social relations and how hegemonic leadership responds to this. We take the policies of AKP government in Turkey as a case in populist hegemonic project. We demonstrate that AKP has followed different hegemonic projects during its rule changing from an initial majoritarian populist politics to one of neoliberal authoritarian populism as it has consolidated its hegemonic depth. These different populist projects involve alternative visions of Turkey but are nevertheless all compatible with a global neoliberal agenda.

Key Words

Critical Realism ; Hegemonic Depth ; Hegemonic Project ; PopulismTurkey

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