Between Identity and Difference

Abstract

Amidst continuing debates whether it is a democratic or an authoritarian political actor, this study suggests a postfoundational view of Turkey’s Justice and Development Party (AK Party). According to postfoundationalism, society is a contingent but necessary ground for the social, which is open-ended and overrides all social formations with its non-fixable differences. Democracy marks this stubborn character of the social and is antithetical to the idea of society, which entails the fixation of differences and a degree of social closure. On this basis, I argue that the AK Party is, in fact, a hegemonic popular political movement, as opposed to merely a political party, that subscribes to democracy and yet seeks to construct a society. Accordingly, I analyze how it strives to resolve this paradoxical situation by attempting to rearticulate and integrate democracy (and other signifiers) into its conservative/civilizational discourse.