“Local and National” Discourse: A Tool for the De-Mobilization of Turkish Model

Tezin Türü: Yüksek Lisans

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, Sosyal Bilimler (Türk-Alman) Anabilim Dalı, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2022

Tezin Dili: İngilizce

Öğrenci: Mehmet Arca Özçoban

Asıl Danışman (Eş Danışmanlı Tezler İçin): Helga Ida Rittersberger

Eş Danışman: Antoine Pierre Charles Dolcerocca

Özet:

This thesis analyses the variegated functions of the “local and national” discourse. It analyzes the rise of the de-mobilization of the "Turkish Model" and the historical bloc that emerged around the AKP as a central element in the “yerli ve milli” (i.e. “local and national”) discourse. It does so by focusing on the relationship between the state and business associations and how it produces the “local and national”. This research contributes to the existing literature on rising authoritarianism and debates on identity in Turkey and how the “local and national” discourse was used as a tool for what can be analysed as a passive revolution. I conduct the thesis within a Gramscian conceptual framework. Discourse analysis allows this research to grasp the context of power relations between state and business associations. The research mainly defines and analyzes three main aspects of the discourse, it first identifies the economic meaning of “local and national” production, it then moves to the ideological and political meaning of the discourse, and lastly, it analyses the discourse used as a “local and national” identity. This thesis argues that the “local and national” discourse is used for political and ideological purposes and the consolidation of an Islamic identity, which is a product of the organic relationship between the state and business association, namely MÜSİAD, rather than the actual emergence of a new “local and national” economic model. This thesis contend that the “local and national” discourse is a product of the organic crisis of the Turkish Model, which affected actors involved in the historical bloc, particularly TÜSİAD.