Talk:
“A coalitional perspective on democratic backsliding: Elite coalitions and the bureaucracy in Turkey”
by
Dr. M. Kerem Coban
Lecturer in Public Policy & Management
School of Finance and Management
SOAS, University of London
coban.kerem@gmail.com
Date and Room Info:
Wednesday, December 18, 2024, 12:30 p.m., T271
Abstract:
The rise of populism and the authoritarian shift has triggered a debate on the politics-administration nexus with a focus on the politics of democratic backsliding and the role of the bureaucracy. Recent studies have increasingly concentrated on the strategies of populist politicians to control the bureaucracy and the responses from the bureaucracy to these attempts. However, this dyadic approach to the politics-administration remains limited to understand the ramifications of democratic backsliding on bureaucracy. In this paper, we propose a coalitional perspective on politics of bureaucracy during process of democratic backsliding. Illustrating the usefulness of this perspective through the Turkish context, the paper highlights the role of intra-elite conflict and inter-elite competition in shaping the politics-administration nexus, and why and how democratic backsliding has led to subordination, instrumentalization, and even deconstruction of bureaucracy in Turkey. As such, the paper contributes to our understanding of the dynamics at play during the process of backsliding and the transformation of the politics-administration nexus.
Short Biography
M. Kerem Coban is a Lecturer in Public Policy & Management at the School of Finance and Management, SOAS, University of London, a Global Network Scholar in the Department of Political Science and International Relations, Kadir Has University, and an Associate Member of LAGAPE, University of Lausanne. He is an Associate Editor of Policy Design and Practice, the Assistant Editor of the Australian Journal of Public Administration and the Editorial Assistant (Social Media) of Policy and Society. His research and teaching interests lie at the intersection of comparative public policy, regulatory governance, and international political economy.