Statecraft on cement: The politics of land-based accumulation in Erdoğan’s Turkey

Abstract

This article contributes to the literature on the role of the state in land-based accumulation by presenting an explanatory framework on the case of contemporary Turkey, a case marked by an unprecedented construction boom that carries the distinct mark of the ruling AKP (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, or Justice and Development Party). Land-based accumulation has constituted a defining aspect of the political economic setting of the AKP era. An investigation of the motivations behind this strategy reveals that it has been instrumental for the ruling party’s political agendas. Through land-based accumulation, the AKP has been able to cultivate a new generation of firms in the construction industry with connections to the party, consolidate its power among domestic capital and develop new mechanisms to finance party politics. Furthermore, symbolic and material manifestations of land-based accumulation have been abundantly used in the party’s propaganda machinery to provide ideological legitimation. Overall, the AKP’s authoritarian grip on power has been forged through the political-ideological resources provided by land-based accumulation. Contrary to the widespread narratives of weakening, passive or merely facilitating states, the case of Turkey brings to the fore an instance of boosting state agendas through land-based accumulation. My findings underline the need to combine capital-switch arguments with a Gramscian political conjunctural analysis for a fuller understanding of the role of the state in land-based accumulation, and point to the urban roots of neoliberal authoritarianism.