The Turkish public support for Erdogan

Abstract

Presidents apply the populist approach as a way to gain support from the public and to preserve their thrones. President Erdogan took this approach during his nearly 18 years in office, through multiple electoral campaigns. This research paper explores the level of Turkish public support for Erdogan and seeks to explain which citizens continue to support Erdogan’s agenda. The 7th wave of the World Values Survey in Turkey in 2018 was used in this research, in which over 2,000 Turkish citizens from all regions of Turkey were interviewed to collect the data. An analysis of those who expressed a willingness to vote for the AKP suggests that the usual demographic indicators do not predict support as expected. The Turkish public is divided in its support for continued AKP rule, and these divisions do not correlate with gender, or income. There is mild support for more religious people voting for the AKP, but most respondents actually report that religion is important in their life, even those that do not support the AKP. The picture becomes even more complicated when examining attitudes about democracy and perceptions about the democratic quality of the regime.