Türkiye’s Case of 15 July: State of Exception and Authoritarian Statism as Modes of Governance

This study examines authoritarianism in Türkiye in the aftermath of the coup attempt on 15 July 2016. The primary aim is to evaluate the governance practices that emerged in Türkiye following the coup attempt within the conceptual framework of “state of exception” and “authoritarian statism”. Accordingly, it presents and discusses the conceptualisations of two influential scholars. It asks, “To what extent are the governance practices in Türkiye after 15 July close to Agamben’s state of exception or Poulantzas’s authoritarian statism?” Methodologically, this study combines a single case study with a conceptual-comparative analysis. In doing so, it contributes to the field by applying theoretical concepts to an empirical event. Thanks to this methodological framework, the study brings together two theories, based on different ontological and epistemological traditions, on a common analytical level. Authoritarianism in Türkiye is not merely a process linked to short-term political crises; it is intertwined with the historical and political context of the reshaping of state-capital relations, social opposition, security policies, and institutional structures. Thus, the main outcome is that the regime transformation in Türkiye is a hybrid form of authoritarianism situated at the intersection of these two approaches; it possesses a multi-layered structure in which the state of exception has become permanent, and the institutional structure of the state apparatus has been rebuilt in favour of the executive. Hence, it offers a conceptual proposal, “exceptional-authoritarian statism”, as an analytical category to explain this transformation.