From Theocracy to Theopolitics: Examining Erdoğan’s Model of Islamic Governance in Turkey

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 PhD., Candidate, Department of International Relations, Faculty of Political Science, Za.C., Islamic Azad University, Zanjan, Iran

2 Department of International Relations, Faculty of Political Science, Za.C., Islamic Azad University, Zanjan, Iran

Abstract

This study examines the relationship between Islam, political legitimacy, and state governance in contemporary Turkey under the leadership of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Over the past two decades, Erdoğan’s political discourse has increasingly incorporated Islamic symbols, ethical narratives, and references to Ottoman–Islamic heritage, leading some scholars and observers to interpret his governance as a shift toward Islamic theocracy. This study challenges this binary interpretation by examining whether the growing prominence of religion in political discourse has substantively transformed the institutional structure of the Turkish state or primarily represents a symbolic and discursive mode of political legitimation. It asks whether Erdoğan’s mobilization of Islamic imagery and moral rhetoric constitutes a move toward religious government or a strategic form of theopolitics operating within Turkey’s secular constitutional framework. The study adopts an interdisciplinary theoretical framework that combines theopolitics, Weberian legitimacy theory, and constructivist approaches to political meaning-making. The concept of theopolitics distinguishes the political mobilization of religious symbols and narratives from institutional theocracy, which entails the formal authority of religious institutions and the primacy of religious law. Methodologically, the study employs qualitative interpretive political analysis and critical discourse analysis. The empirical corpus comprises presidential speeches, policy statements, relevant institutional documents concerning religious affairs, and legal texts addressing the relationship between religion and the state. Data were selected through purposive sampling, with particular attention to instances
in which Islamic references, identity narratives, and moral concepts were prominently articulated. The analysis examines how these discursive elements contribute to political legitimacy and national identity and shape policy narratives in areas such as social welfare, family policy, and foreign policy. The findings indicate that Erdoğan’s model of 
governance does not exhibit the institutional characteristics of an Islamic theocracy. Turkey’s state institutions continue to operate within a secular constitutional framework characterized by competitive elections and legal–rational bureaucratic authority. The institutional apparatus responsible for religious affairs functions primarily as a state-managed religious bureaucracy rather than an autonomous clerical institution with legislative or judicial authority. Nevertheless, Erdoğan systematically employs Islamic ethical concepts, religious symbolism, and Ottoman–Islamic historical references to construct political legitimacy, reinforce collective identity, and provide moral justification for political choices. These symbolic resources are particularly evident in narratives concerning national history, social solidarity, welfare provision, and Turkey’s role in the Muslim world. The findings further demonstrate that Erdoğan’s use of Islamic symbolism contributes to a hybrid form of political legitimation that combines legal–rational institutions, charismatic leadership, and cultural–religious identity. Although Islamic values influence political rhetoric and policy framing, they neither replace civil law nor establish religious authorities as independent centers of political or judicial power. Across policy domains, religious references primarily serve as sources of moral framing and cultural resonance, while policy formulation and implementation remain embedded in bureaucratic and legal procedures. Thus, the Turkish case illustrates that the increasing visibility of religious discourse does not, in itself, constitute evidence of a transition to theocracy. The study concludes that Erdoğan’s model is more accurately characterized as managed theopolitics than as Islamic theocracy. Religion operates as a symbolic and discursive resource for constructing legitimacy, shaping national identity, and framing political objectives, while the institutional foundations of the state remain substantially secular. The Turkish case therefore challenges the conventional binary between secularism and theocracy and demonstrates the possibility of a hybrid political configuration in which religious symbolism influences political culture and legitimation without fundamentally transforming the state’s constitutional and institutional structure.

Keywords

References

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