Turkey Reframed: Constituting Neoliberal Hegemony by Ismet Aka, Ahmet Bekmen

and Baris Alp zden (eds). London: Pluto Press, 2014. 292pp., 25.00, ISBN
9780745333847

Turkey Reframed: Constituting Neoliberal Hegemony tries to interpret the conditions under
which the Justice and Development Party (AKP) emerged, and how it has consolidated its
political power over the past decade. What has become clear, even more in recent years, is
that the AKP government represents the reconsolidation of the neoliberal hegemony. It is
neoliberal hegemony, and not Islam as many researchers and commentators claim, that
provides the legitimising framework for the AKPs authoritarian politics. This becomes
evident throughout the book and the analysis of AKPs conservative, authoritarian populism.
Turkey Reframed tries to demonstrate the above argument, but it presents a significant
difference from previous studies on the AKP in the sense that it contextualises the latter
within the 30-year general process of the neoliberal hegemonic constitution. The primary
concern of the book and of its contributors is to discuss hegemony in its class terms, and not
the hegemony of a political party. In order to demonstrate the particularities and complexities
of Turkish politics and society, the book is divided into two parts. Part I reveals the plurality
of political and non-political actors and the relations between them which have played a role
in the Turkish state transformation since 1980, placing class at the core of its analysis. It is
widely accepted among the contributors that while previous hegemonic projects failed, the
AKP hegemonic project due too to the establishment of its own official brand of
nationalism seems more successful. Its success lies in the unity which the AKP established
between dominant and subordinated classes, and the hegemony, in Gramscian terms, which
the party managed to manufacture through that unity. Part II of the book puts its emphasis and
sheds fresh light on issues such as social welfare, gender and sexuality, organised labour,
working-class formation and social movements (Islamist and Kurdish). The books final
chapter is a postscript dealing with the Gezi resistance of June 2013. Among other things, all
of the chapters (the postscript included) demonstrate to what extent the AKPs neoliberal
hegemonic project has been consolidated in Turkish society.
Turkey Reframed is a welcome contribution to the burgeoning studies on the AKP, while
the class oriented analysis of the contributions offers a priceless addition and a fresh look at
the vast array of mainstream explanations. The books wide range of topics is most
impressive, while all of the contributions are both masterly and lucid. There is no doubt that
Turkey Reframed will be widely accepted and become one of the standard readings on
understanding contemporary Turkish politics, and more specifically the AKP era. It is highly
recommended.