Tracing the Pragmatic Nature of Justice and Development Party (AKP) Back to Its Party Programme

The democratic promises of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) have long been forgotten. We have also witnessed many changes in the AKP’s discourse and policies. This has led to the arguments that the AKP is a pragmatic party. This article contributes to these debates by examining the AKP party programme and will show that the pragmatism of AKP is not recent. Rather, it was a pragmatic party since its beginning. Initially, pragmatism was a way of survival and then it enabled political manoeuvrability. We will first argue that the AKP’s pragmatism is closely linked to its conservatism even though conservatism was not mentioned in the programme, which can be seen as its first pragmatic move. Then, we will look at the areas of fundamental rights and political principles, economy, women and family, and education to trace and reveal the pragmatism in the programme and also in practice.