Denunciations as Tool of State Control in Hybrid Regimes: Evidence from Turkey

• In Event: Poster Session: Democracy and Autocracy

Abstract

Available data on the skyrocketing number of denunciations in Turkey demonstrates that denunciations have become a widespread practice among ordinary citizens in recent years. Media coverage also indicates that denunciations have been an essential tool for the regime to neutralize dissent. This presents an intriguing puzzle as the surge in citizen-driven denunciations aligns with the increasing authoritarianism observed within the ruling Justice and Development Party under President Erdoğan. Yet, up until now, no comprehensive study has addressed this. Also, our understanding of citizen-led denouncing practices is limited to 20th-century totalitarian regimes, such as Nazi Germany, or contemporary dictatorships, such as China. Little is known how mass reporting can thrive in contexts beyond the extreme forms of governance, such as in hybrid regimes.
To fill the gap, this study investigates the unravelling the political and societal factors in the emergence of the mass reporting mechanism in Turkey. To do this, the project has a dual goal: 1) It provides an in-depth understanding of how a clandestine denunciation system becomes integrated into ostensibly democratic institutions, leveraging democratic processes and public involvement; 2) It uncovers the authoritarian rationale behind the overall reporting system by examining the interplay of repression, co-optation, and legitimation within the denunciation mechanism. This involves illustrating co-optation of ordinary citizens to participate in an extensive surveillance network; legitimation & promotion of the system by political elites, and repression of political opponents and marginalized groups. It asks these questions: How has the denunciation mechanism been established in Turkey over the past decade? and What underlies the authoritarian logic guiding its implementation?
Building upon existing theories, this study conceptualizes denunciations as a manifestation of the alliance between political actors and ordinary citizens. Yet, it further argues that denunciation represents a phenomenon where core authoritarian strategies, repression, co-optation, intersect at macro, meso and micro-level factors. That is, repression, co-optation and legitimation intersect a) at macro-level guiding the politics and ideology behind the mass reporting system; b) at meso-level informing the institutional arrangement, c) at micro-level characterising citizen participation. We delve into the internal dynamics of this overarching mechanism across three levels, informed by co-optation, repression, legitimation. This involves an examination of the political and ideological underpinnings of the mechanism, the institutional framework facilitating it, and the active participation of citizens.
This study adopts a multi-level approach to explore the “demand-supply mechanism” that characterizes the state-society interactions through denunciations. By focusing on multiple levels, we strike a balance by providing structural/institutional as well as individual lenses to comprehend denunciations.
Macro-level analysis explores the politics and ideology informing citizen mobilization for denouncing as reflected in the political discourse. Speeches delivered by president Erdoğan from 2013 to 2023 are analysed by Discourse Historical Approach. Meso-level analysis focuses on the state society interactions through formal institutions. This involves examination of the institutional framework and the range of denunciation practices. For this, laws, judiciary tools and bureaucratic resources orchestrated to facilitate denunciations are examined. Also, semi-structured interviews are conducted with legal experts and bureaucrats to explore various denouncing practices. For micro-level analysis, semi-structured interviews are conducted with the users and victims of denouncing to investigate individual practices and experiences within the overall reporting system.
Our findings demonstrate that an overarching authoritarian discourse generates repression, advocates for collaboration, and justifies state repression as a whole at macro-level. Meso-level analysis shows that repression, co-optation and legitimation also manifest in institutional framework surrounding the denunciation mechanism. This happens as a result of the political engineering of the institutional framework to facilitate denunciations. Micro-level findings suggests that the overall petitioning system creates a victimisation in already marginalized groups.
Conceptualizing the convergence of contingencies conditioned by institutional and individual factors can shed light on how the reporting system creates victimisation among citizens and the benefits the regime could derive from this. In this sense, this study contributes to discussions on subtle mechanisms of control in hybrid regimes. We are particularly interested in observing how the hybrid Turkish context differs from extreme repressive cases, such as China or Nazi Germany, in establishing control by leveraging institutions and gathering public support through denunciations.

Author

• Emine Ay, Dublin City University