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Feeling Socially Secure in Turkey: The JDP’s Gender Regime in Focus
Abstract
This paper aims at offering a feminist analysis of the current working of the neoliberal-conservative politics in Turkey through the Justice and Development Party’s (JDP) regulations in the spheres of social policy and internal security. The main argument of the paper is that the JDP governments’ attempts to administer the neoliberal crisis at the national level can be traced in the increasing authoritarian stance of the party, accompanied by neo-conservative discourse. The paper is built on three parts. In the first part, I offer a reading of the JDP’s social policy record with special emphasis on the party’s familial policies in order to demonstrate party’s commitment to conservative values in policy preferences. In this part I analyze the “Family Package”—a set of gender policies initiated by the JDP in early 2015. In the second part, I focus on the party’s recent attempts to initiate authoritarian security regulations. In this part, I analyze the “Internal Security Package”—a set of policies initiated by the JDP almost simultaneously with the “Family Package.” In the third and concluding part, I offer a discussion on the junction between the conservative discourse and security discourse that exemplifies the rise of authoritarian politics in times of crisis.
Discipline
Political Science
Geographic Area
Turkey
Sub Area
19th-21st Centuries