Changing Dynamics of Government-Opposition Relations in Italy and Turkey

• In Event: Populism, Power, Accountability, and Opposition (Pre-Recorded)

Abstract

The standard convention in the political science literature is to define populists as representing the true people against the corrupt elites (Canovan 1999; Mudde 2004). That convention is useful to code populists based on their political programs and speeches (Jones 2019). However, it is of little avail to capture the changing political realities once populists become the new elites (Kaltwasser et al. 2017). Specifically, what happens to relations between government and opposition when yesterday’s populist challengers turn in today’s government force? Who is the opposition, and what is its political strategy, when populists gain power?
We hope to suggest answers by contrasting the experience of Italy and Turkey. The two cases are interesting because they imply diverging responses to the rise of populists as mainstream elite. In Italy, the surge of populist Silvio Berlusconi’s party (Forza Italia), and the broad center-left alliance that formed in reaction to it, were in turn challenged by the emergence of two other populist groups, i.e. Five Star Movement (5SM) and Lega. By asserting themselves in government, 5SM and Lega first pushed the old populist elite into opposition and then socialized the center-left into a populist government coalition. In the Turkish case, the opposition parties have proved unable to displace from power President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's center-right party (Justice and Development Party, AKP) for nearly two decades. However, lack of alternation in power and new electoral incentives have recently pushed the main opposition parties across the political spectrum to join forces in a broad electoral coalition and new center-right parties to emerge. Whatever their potential to oust the AKP and Erdoğan from power in the next elections in 2023, the opposition parties have intensified their anti-establishment appeal against the erstwhile anti-establishment AKP and are poised to challenge the latter's political dominance.

Authors

• Silvia Fuselli, Johns Hopkins University (SAIS)

• Erik Jones, European University Institute