Transformation of Coercion under Democratic Backsliding: The Case of Turkey

Although the literature on coercion in autocracies reflects a general awareness that coercive institutions in authoritarian regimes are involved in political repression to keep the leader in power, there is little research on the exact forms these coercive apparatuses take across different regimes. Such research could help explain variations in the structures of coercive institutions or why countries adopt different institutional designs. This study explores in depth how the Erdogan government in Turkey structured the internal security apparatus to contain both popular and elite challenges to its survival during the country’s authoritarian transformation. The findings—centered on the Erdogan government’s reassessment of the sources of threats to its survival and its response to that changed assessment—suggest that shifts in authoritarian leaders’ threat perceptions can lead to very different organizational and deployment strategies for coercion in service of regime survival.