An Analysis of the National Will Discourse of Erdoğan: from ‘Nation-As-One’ to ‘Nation As Us’
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AN ANALYSIS OF THE NATIONAL WILL DISCOURSE OF ERDOĞAN: FROM ‘NATION-AS-ONE’ TO ‘NATION AS US’ A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES OF MIDDLE EAST TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY BY BAHAR ORAL IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE IN THE DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE AND PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION SEPTEMBER 2015 Approval of the Graduate School of Social Sciences Prof.Dr. Meliha ALTUNIŞIK Director I certify that this thesis satisfies all the requirements as a thesis for the degree of Master of Science. Prof.Dr. Ayşe AYATA Head of Department This is to certify that we have read this thesis and that in our opinion it is fully adequate, in scope and quality, as a thesis for the degree of Master of Science. Assoc.Prof.Dr. Fahriye ÜSTÜNER Supervisor Examining Committee Members Assoc. Prof.Dr. Canan Aslan Akman (METU,ADM) Assoc.Prof.Dr. Fahriye Üstüner ( METU,ADM) Prof.Dr. Berrin Koyuncu Lorasdağı(H.U.KAY) I hereby declare that all information in this document has been obtained and presented in accordance with academic rules and ethical conduct. I also declare that, as required by these rules and conduct, I have fully cited and referenced all material and results that are not original to this work. Name, Last name : Bahar Oral Signature: iii ABSTRACT AN ANALYSIS OF THE NATIONAL WILL DISCOURSE OF ERDOĞAN: FROM ‘NATION-AS-ONE’ TO NATION AS US Oral, Bahar M.Sc., Department of Poltical Science and Public Administration Supervisor: Doc. Dr. Fahriye Üstüner September 2015, 192 pages This thesis has produced for analyzing the national will discourse of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the chairman of JDP and Prime Minister of Turkish Republic between the years of 2002-2014. National will concept is thought to be one of the constitutive components of Erdoğan’s discourse and it is observed that this concept is overused by Erdoğan. Whilst working on this subject, the French thinker Claude Lefort’s theory, he theory of ‘empty space of power’ has utilized. According to this theory, power which had been rest in the absolute monarch before the modern era, has taken from him with the ideal of popular sovereignty and left to the people as abstract masses. In other words the place of power is emptied in 20th century systems and power becomes the power of nobody. Lefort asserts that this emptied space of power is convenient to be filled by a party or a person who is capable of constituting a discourse through which he identified himself with nation or people . It is asserted in this thesis that, in Turkish case, the discourse indicating by Lefort, is the national will discourse of Erdoğan. For grounding this assertion, firstly the political history has written with taking the concepts of power, iv popular sovereignty, nation and national will as base, then the Turkish episode of the concept has put with considering center right political tradition until the occurrence of JDP, and finally all the speeches of Erdoğan from its 11 years power term has subjected to the discourse analysis through the notion of national will. Key Words: Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, National Will, Power, Claude Lefort, Popular Sovereignty v ÖZ ERDOĞAN’IN MİLLİ İRADE SÖYLEMİNİN ANALİZİ: TEK OLARAK MİLETTEN BİZ OLARAK MİLLETE Oral, Bahar Yüksek Lisans Siyaset Bilimi ve Kamu Yönetimi Bölümü Tez Yöneticisi: Doç. Dr. Fahriye Üstüner Eylül 2015, 192 sayfa Bu tez AKP Genel Başkanı ve 2002-2014 yılları arası Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Başbakan’ı olan Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’ın Milli irade söylemini analiz etmek amacıyla yazılmıştır. Milli irade kavramın Erdoğan’ın söyleminin kurucu unsurlarından biri olduğu düşünülmüş ve kavramın Erdoğan tarafından fazla kullanıldığı gözlemlenmiştir. Bu konuyu çalışırken, Fransız Düşünür Cladue Lefort’un ‘iktidarın boş alanı’ teorisinden yararlanılmıştır. Bu teoriye göre modern öncesi dönemde mutlak bir kralda bulunan iktidar, halkın egemenliği ideali ile kraldan alınmış ve soyut bir kitle olarak halka verilmiştir. Başka bir deyişle 20. yüzyıldaki sistemlerde iktidarın alanı boşaltılmış ve hiç kimsenin iktidarı haline gelmiştir. Lefort boşalan bu iktidar alanının kendini milletle özdeşleştirecek bir söylem kurmaya muktedir olan bir parti ya da kişi tarafından doldurulmaya elverişli olduğunu belirtir. Bu tezde Lefort’un işaret ettiği söylemin Türkiye bağlamında Erdoğan’ın milli irade söylemi olduğu iddia edilmektedir. Bu iddiayı temellendirmek için önce siyaset tarihi iktidar, halkın egemenliği, millet ve milli irade kavramları temel alınarak yazılmış, sonra kavramın Türkiye serüveni, AKP’nin oluşumuna kadarki merkez sağ siyaset geleneğini göz önünde bulundurarak koyulmuş vi ve son olarak Erdoğan’ın 11 yıllık iktidar dönemindeki bütün konuşmalarının, söylem analizi milli irade kavramı üzerinden yapılmıştır. Anahtar Kelimeler: Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Milli İrade, İktidar, Claude Lefort, Halkın Egemenliği vii Dedicated to those, who have been killed in the squares and streets while I was studying on this work. viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis has produced as a result of 20 mounts endeavor. Firstly, I have to express my gratitude to my supervisor Doc. Dr. Fahriye Üstüner who has helped me in every part of this process with her patience and tolerance. She has recommended me to write on this subject and shaped my work with her extensive advices and critics. I have not only taken advantage of her academic profundity but, at the same time I have learned an academic ethic from her. I also would like to thank Prof.Dr. Berrin Koyuncu Lorasdağı who has been encouraged me from the end of my undergraduate program to the end of my thesis. She has always believed my academic ideals and supports me in this direction. She has always been a resort that I could consult when I felt stuck during my research. Similarly I have to express my thankfulness to Prof Dr. Tanel Demirel. He, also, has been the one, that I can consult on and from whom I can get elaborated evaluations. I have improved my work with his contributions and criticizing. He also has helped me to find some of the resources that I have needed. He contributed efforts to my work and have significant effects on the formation of the fourth chapter. Dr. Kadir Dede’s contributions to whole my Master process are gratefully acknowledged. He is the one who directs me the political sciences instead of public administration and maintained his support every time. I could ask all kind of questions about all of the problems that I have faced during the proses of writing. He has been one of the building blocks of my academic life. I would also like to express my special gratefulness to my dear friends whit whom I have taken the road together, Burcu Olgun, Nevcihan Karaosman and Zeynep Özge Iğdır. Without their support and mollifying this process would be insufferable. ix Very Special thanks to my aunt who helped me to find out two third of the raw materials of this thesis from the TBMM. Without her help this thesis could not be completed. I also have to express my gratitude to my cousin Barış Güngörlü who has provided me books from Bilkent University Library. Finally I want to express my gratitude to my family. They tolerate my stressful mounts and ease the life for me. My father Levet Oral has always supported my ideals on academy. My dear brother Mehmet Can Oral helped me much in the technical rectification process and motivated me all the time. My mother, Ulviye Oral, however deserve ultimate thanks. She touched me to think, to question and care about the lives of other people. Without her support , her comprehensive help and perspective it would be impossible for me to carry this process out. x TABLE OF CONTENTS PLAGIARISM ........................................................... Hata! Yer işareti tanımlanmamış. ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................................... iv ÖZ ..................................................................................................................................... vi DEDICATION ........................................................... Hata! Yer işareti tanımlanmamış. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................................. ix TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................... Hata! Yer işareti tanımlanmamış. LIST OF ABBREVATIONS ......................................................................................... xiii CHAPTER ........................................................................................................................... INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................... 1 SOVEREIGNTY FROM GOD TO THE PEOPLE: GENERAL/NATIONAL WILL 11 2.1. POWER AS ONE: PRE-MODERN TERM OF DEMOCRACY ..................... 13 2.1.1. Power as One............................................................................................... 14 2.1.2. Transition from the ‘Power as one’ to ‘Power as many’ ............................ 16 2.2. POWER AS MANY: MODERN TERM OF DEMOCRACY AND ARISING OF INDIVIDUALITY AND POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY ........................... 19 2.3. PEOPLE AS ONE: GENERAL WILL AS RADICAL UNDERSTANDING OF POWER AND SOVEREIGNTY .............................................................................. 25 2.4. POWER AS NOBODY: EMPTY SPACE OF TWENTEETH CENTURY DEMOCRACY ......................................................................................................... 34 2.4.1. Power in Twentieth Century Democracies