Atlas / Comparisons / AKP vs Social Liberalism
AKP and Social Liberalism
Measured distance across six axes
Opposed programmes with little shared ground. They agree within three points on EC. They diverge by eight points or more on CU, AU, ID.
Axis by axis
| Axis | Justice and Development Party | Rawlsian liberalism | Gap | Reading | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EC · Economic organisation | +04 | +01 | 3 | Agrees | Effectively the same position. Not what an argument between them is about. |
| CU · Social and cultural order | +08 | −06 | 14 | Diverges | Carries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this. |
| AU · Organisation of power | +08 | −06 | 14 | Diverges | Carries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this. |
| SC · Scale of decision | +07 | +02 | 5 | Differs | Real difference, but not the dividing line. |
| ID · Rule of membership | +06 | −07 | 13 | Diverges | Carries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this. |
| CH · Method and tempo | −01 | −07 | 6 | Differs | Real difference, but not the dividing line. |
Each axis runs from −10 to +10; the distance is the straight-line separation across all six at once, out of a maximum of 49.0. How the scoring works →
The evidence behind the widest gaps
A distance figure is worth nothing unless the scores behind it can be checked. These are the artefacts supporting the axes that separate these two most.
Justice and Development Party · CU +08
Coded +8: a religious-conservative reordering of education, public space and family policy.
- Documented act or statuteWithdrawal from the Istanbul Convention on violence against women in 2021.
- Documented act or statuteExpansion of imam-hatip religious schooling and lifting of the headscarf ban in public institutions.
Rawlsian liberalism · CU −06
Coded −6: equal basic liberties as lexically prior to everything else.
- Programme textThe first principle of justice takes priority over the distributive one in Rawls's ordering.
Justice and Development Party · AU +08
Constitutional change by referendum plus mass replacement of judiciary and media after 2016.
- Documented act or statuteThe 2017 referendum replaced the parliamentary system with an executive presidency and abolished the office of prime minister.
- Documented act or statuteOver four thousand judges and prosecutors were dismissed after the 2016 coup attempt.
Rawlsian liberalism · AU −06
Coded −6: entrenched rights and judicial review.
- Programme textThe framework places basic liberties beyond ordinary majority revision.
What this comparison does not establish
Proximity means similarity of stated position. It carries no claim about competence, circumstance, scale of operation, or what either organisation actually did to the people under it. Two organisations can sit close together and produce entirely different histories, because those things are not on any axis and could not be.
AKP
2001– · Turkey
Conservative religious identity, national sovereignty, and a strong presidency claiming direct popular mandate.
Social Liberalism
1971– · Global North
Equal basic liberties first, then fair equality of opportunity, then inequalities only where they benefit the worst off.
Distance is not the whole answer. Two organisations can sit the same distance apart for entirely different reasons, and the reason is the content of any claim about them. Open the comparison in the atlas to weight the axes yourself.
Open in the atlas