Fighting authoritarian populism with populism in polarised Turkey

Abstract Globally, populism is on the rise. Studies demonstrate how populism is a ‘thin’ ideology that is articulated with ideologies ranging from authoritarianism to its challenges. Here, we examine how two politicians who, at similar times in their careers, represented themselves as inclusive and democratic, yet articulated different incarnations of populism. One of these (Turkish President Erdoğan) has since become an authoritarian populist and the other (Ekrem İmamoğlu), Erdoğan’s political opposition. Both İmamoğlu in 2019 and Erdoğan in 1994 were first elected as Istanbul’s mayor. Using Critical Discourse Analysis, we analyse their public utterances around the times of these mayoral victories. This close reading reveals how discursive strategies are used in Erdoğan’s utterances that articulate the seeds of authoritarian populism while İmamoğlu, 25 years later, uses populism to challenge these. This study offers insights into how populism can be employed to both articulate and challenge authoritarian populism.