Türkiye’deki Siyasi Partilerin Sivil Toplum Üzerine Söylemleri
Political Parties and the Discourse on Civil Society in Turkey

Summary/Abstract: Despite ideological differences among them there is an underlying commonality among the four political parties at the Turkish parliament in terms of their discourse on the concept of civil society. They share the same ground due to a constant reference to the „ideal‟ of civil society as a factor contributing democratization. This role of civil society for the „project of democracy‟ is explained with reference to a particular understanding of „pluralism without antagonism‟ and with an emphasis on consensus. Civil society is commonly conceptualized by these political parties as the sphere of active citizenship, voluntariness, solidarity, autonomy, rights and liberties, dialogue, cooperation, harmonious coexistence of differences etc. However, crucial aspects of civil society are ignored by this hegemonic view. Most importantly, this view fails to recognize that civil society is a sphere of life where individuals experience the complex web of interwoven power relations and inequalities. The concept of civil society should serve as the analytical tool to bring these relations to the forefront, to highlight them and hence to make them contestable rather than serving to consolidate the illusion that differences leading to inequalities are not important. Through a reading of official party documents (party programs and election manifestos) this study reflects upon the hitches of this widely employed romantic vision of civil society and its relation with democracy with resort to the post-Marxist literature on power and antagonism. As a result, it argues that, due to its deficiency in problematizing power relations from the point of view of the disadvantaged, the hegemonic conception of civil society, employed by parliamentary parties in Turkey is far from having a potential to provide a new horizon in search of solutions to our problems related with the coexistence of difference and equality.

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