Based on newspapers, documents and policy statements of Turkey’s Justice and Development Party (AKP), this paper suggests that, despite its stark contrasts both in terms of it ideological outlook and rhetoric and despite the party’s unprecedented and meteoric rise to power since December 2002, there is immense continuity in AKP-led government. This continuity is eminent both in terms of policies that are being implemented as well as the style of politics based on patronage networks and exclusionary (discretionary) practices. The first part of the paper will underscore the persistently neoliberal policies, such as privatization, deregulation and liberalization pursued by the AKP government and suggest that AKP represents continuity in Turkey’s economic liberalization story since the 1980s. Second part of the paper will suggest that since macro-level fiscal measures to relieve some of the side effects and dislocations created by these neoliberal policies were no longer available to policy makers since the end of the Import Substitution era in the early 1980s, most politicians have found it extremely convenient to expand their clientelistic and patronage networks. Three major trends have been observable, main features of which are constantly seen in the AKP government as well. One is the sudden appearance of a new class of “rich” and entourage of emerging businessmen who will inevitably challenge the “old establishment.” Second, is the ever expanding social assistance networks, through municipalities, philanthropic groups, benevolent “loyal” businessmen and, in the case of AKP in particular, Islamic charity groups. Third is the disappearance of the political economy issues from the political agenda as these issues are presumably left to the technocrats or become “veiled” by more cultural and ethnic issues such as issue of the Kurds, Islamist versus secularist controversies. The third part of the paper explores why this “neoliberal patronage politics” i.e. clientelism with fiscal discipline, has been so prevalent in Turkish politics and suggests that historically state-dependent private sector, underdeveloped welfare state based on social citizenship as well as informal nature of the overall economy have locked-in a particular type of politics based on patronage and clientelistic networks. The paper ends with the broader implications of the argument and suggests that the persistence of patronage-based politics raises series questions in terms of the quality of citizenship and democracy in the country, as it creates legitimate concerns over accountability, equality and rule of law.