How Turkey's repetitive elections affected the populist tone in the discourses of the Justice and Development Party Leaders

Abstract

Perceived uncertainty and anger lead people to investigate with respect to the establishment, and politicians who are seen as reckless within society. In this sense, populist discourse paved a way to respond by glorifying one group of people and scapegoating others that emerge as group differentiation. Critical moments especially illustrate mutual constructive identification through the discourse of political actors. This article explores a contextual change in the populist discourse of the Justice and Development Party (JDP) leaders by observing the successive elections that occurred in 2015. It argues that the leaders mainly expressed an us-them distinction, in-group superiority, and the people populist themes; as well as these themes, the electoral speeches made for the second election presented scapegoating and exclusionary statements even more.