Islamist Mobilisation in Secularist Strongholds: Institutional Change and Electoral Performance in Turkey

Abstract:

How do Islamist parties mobilise support and win elections in secularist strongholds? What explains the electoral performance of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Turkey’s most consistently secularist region – western Anatolia?

This article explores these questions with a comparative case study of two similar cities in the periphery of İzmir where the AKP registered significantly different electoral results: Ödemiş and Salihli.

It shows that deep institutional transformations of the local party organisations, including leadership turnover, reshuffling of the party cadres, and an explicit attempt by local party leaders to moderate and move to the political centre, were necessary factors for the AKP to succeed in elections where the Islamist constituency is weak.

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