Secular and Islamic politics in Turkey: the making of the justice and development party

Excerpt

Umit Cizre’s edited volume, Secular and Islamic politics in Turkey, makes an important contribution to the scholarly literature. Unlike the bulk of the previous literature, which analyzed either Islamists or secularists as separate subject matters, this volume highlights the concurrent and interconnected transformations of both Islamic and secularist politics. A major strength of the book is the critical but constructive approach to both the JDP (Justice and Development Party) and the so-called ‘secularist establishment’ which consists of several branches of the state, the secularist political elite and Kemalist social actors. The increasing popularity of the JDP party, especially the rise of the votes from 33% in 2002 to 47% in 2007 has given rise to an increasingly militant secularist backlash. In this context, the volume draws attention to the early phases of the JDP rule and the effective reform program as well as the second phase when reforms slowed down and came to a deadlock. …