Rule of law in Turkey declined faster than anywhere else in the world in the last decade, says report

Duvar English

The Bertelsmann Foundation in Berlin has found that rule of law in Turkey declined faster in the past ten years under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP)-led government than anywhere else in the world. According to the foundation’s 2022 Transformation Index, this decline was driven by rising nationalism, authoritarianism, and political Islam, Deutsche Welle Turkish reports. 

Of the 137 developing and emerging market economies on the list, Turkey ranked 74th in terms of rule of law, stability of democratic institutions, and its capacity to ensure the functioning of the state. Turkey lost 2.85 points in the last ten years, the greatest loss of any country on the list, indicating the greatest political recession.

As Turkey approaches its 100th anniversary in 2023, according to the report, it faces political backsliding driven by “consolidation of authoritarianism, economic fragility, and increasingly conflict-ridden foreign policy.”

President Erdoğan, the report states, has introduced especially since 2013 a “patriarchal and political Islamist leadership style.” The coup attempt in 2016, it writes, was used to justify the transition to a presidential system and consolidate rule under Erdoğan. Measures taken since the coup have also limited political participation, civil society, and have destroyed the separation of powers. 

“The government has accelerated the authoritarianism of the country. Therefore, the executive is the biggest anti-democratic actor. The few liberal democratic, reformist actors left in Turkey do not have enough power to reverse the authoritarianism moves of the democratically elected president,” the report writes.

The AKP’s alliance with the ultranationalist Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), the report adds, has led to a rise in “populist nationalism” that has been used to polarize the country. Reformist segments, in particular the Kurdish community, have been targeted to political ends. 

Islamism has also been on the rise in Turkey, according to the report, driven by the Presidency of Religious Affairs, or Diyanet. The president has introduced his own brand of political Islam and is using Diyanet to limit non-Islamic social activities and introduce conservative religious values onto the populace, according to the report. 

“Diyanet has become an instrument of the government's cultural engineering, in line with the president's goal of building a homogeneous Islamic society,” the report writes. 

The report has also found that Diyanet is highly involved in executive policy crafting.

There has also been a decrease in the power of public administration and an increase in corruption at all levels under President Erdoğan. Independent bodies like the Central Bank do not function independently and many of those running the government are political, not experienced, employees, according to the report. 

“The President exerts disproportionate control, partisanship, politicization, and a management style that is not based on merit. The efficiency and quality of public administration declined as a result of the destruction of accountability,” the report writes. The organization also noted the decline in political participation and the clampdown on the press and the lack of an anti-corruption mechanism in the state.

“All democratic institutions, including the parliament and public administration, are increasingly controlled by the executive,” they wrote. 

The report also noted that the coronavirus pandemic exposed structural problems in the Turkish economy and that the aforementioned decline in rule of law and democratic institutions has further eroded the country’s finances. Increasingly tense relations with the west, marred by human rights abuses, have also discouraged foreign investment and support. 

“The erosion of the rule of law and the lack of independence of the economic administration continues to negatively affect the Turkish economy,” the report writes. 

The report calls for comprehensive administrative reform, press freedoms, a decrease in authoritarianism, fair treatment of Kurdish citizens, an independent judiciary, and a democratic transition on the occasion of Turkey’s 100th anniversary. 

The report first classified Turkey as an “autocracy” in 2020.