The PSA Turkish Politics Specialist Group and the Scotland Network on Turkish Politics invite paper proposals for a one-day hybrid workshop entitled “Democratic Reversals in Europe and Authoritarian Consolidation in Turkey” at the University of Aberdeen (9 October 2026)
The workshop will take place on 9 October 2026 at the University of Aberdeen. Participants will be able to attend either in person or online.
Over the past decade, scholarship on democratic backsliding has increasingly examined whether democratic erosion can be reversed. In Poland, electoral turnover brought to office a government committed to addressing the previous administration’s capture of the courts, media and civil service. Elsewhere in Central Europe, elections have continued to provide an important arena for challenging entrenched incumbents.
Turkey, however, appears to be moving in the opposite direction. Rather than approaching a democratic turning point, it increasingly resembles the consolidated electoral and closed authoritarian regimes of its wider neighbourhood, including Russia, Belarus and Azerbaijan. Although the formal architecture of elections remains in place, the conditions necessary for genuine political competition and alternation in power are being progressively weakened.
Opposition leaders face prosecution, removal from office and political exclusion. Elected municipalities and universities are placed under appointed trustees. High courts and other institutions of horizontal accountability have been hollowed out or brought under political control. Student protests, civic mobilisation and other forms of dissent are met with police violence, criminal proceedings and a dense apparatus of administrative sanctions.
Recent developments further illustrate the intensification of this authoritarian trajectory. The authorities have expanded the crackdown beyond conventional political opposition. Increasingly, the regulation of public space, journalism, cultural production, entertainment, sexuality, protest, and the everyday visibility of dissent has become part of the politics of authoritarian control. Yet, the state propagates a narrative of progress and prosperity, frequently staged through favourable comparison with a Europe portrayed as in decline, that sits at odds with the empirical record.
The workshop asks what distinguishes Turkey’s trajectory from more reversible forms of democratic backsliding and whether—and under what conditions—democratic reversal remains possible. It invites empirical and theoretical contributions examining Turkey’s movement from democratic backsliding towards authoritarian consolidation, with particular attention to the domestic, transnational and international factors and mechanisms driving this shift. Comparative papers are especially welcome.
Workshop themes
Possible areas of inquiry include, but are not limited to:
Factors and mechanisms of authoritarian consolidation
How are the conditions for alternation in power progressively eliminated? What distinguishes authoritarian consolidation from potentially reversible democratic backsliding?
Lawfare and the opposition
How is law transformed into an instrument for restricting political competition? Papers may also examine how opposition parties and movements organise, adapt and endure when the legal terrain is designed to fragment, constrain and exhaust them.
Repression and its architecture
How is dissent policed and contained beyond the courtroom? Contributions might explore policing, surveillance, administrative sanctions, criminal prosecution, restrictions on assembly and other coercive mechanisms directed at students, protesters, civic movements, universities and civil society organisations.
Propaganda, misinformation and disinformation
How is the information environment controlled, and how are narratives supporting authoritarian rule produced and circulated? Papers might also consider how misinformation and disinformation are used to discredit domestic opponents or target external actors.
Democratic reversal
Under what conditions can democratic recovery occur? What roles can opposition coalitions, local governments, courts, universities, civic movements, professional associations, independent media and diaspora communities play?
The international context of authoritarian consolidation
How do international institutions, geopolitical alliances, economic interdependence, migration, security cooperation and foreign-policy considerations shape Turkey’s democratic trajectory? What forms of external pressure or support remain available to democratic actors and the domestic opposition?
Submission details
Researchers interested in participating should submit:
- a 250-word abstract;
- a short biographical statement; and
- an indication of whether the proposal is for a full paper, presentation or work in progress.
Submissions should be sent to turkishpolitics.scotland@gmail.com by 15 September 2026.
Priority will be given to full papers, although presentation proposals and research in progress are also welcome. Applications will be considered on a rolling basis, and applicants will be notified of decisions as soon as possible.
Organising Committee
Dr Digdem Soyaltin Colella
University of Aberdeen
Convenor, PSA Turkish Politics Specialist Group
digdem.soyaltin@abdn.ac.uk
Dr Aykut Ozturk
University of Glasgow
Convenor, PSA Autocracy and Regime Change Specialist Group
aykut.ozturk@glasgow.ac.uk
PSA Turkish Politics Specialist Group 