Is AKP left wing or right wing?

On economic organisation AKP scores +04 on a scale from −10 (common ownership) to +10 (private property and markets). On social and cultural order it scores +08. A single left–right figure combines these and four further measurements that move independently, which is why the atlas reports six.

Is AKP authoritarian?

On the organisation of power, which measures whether authority is dispersed among institutions that can stop each other or concentrated in a single centre, AKP scores +08. Constitution changed by referendum to an executive presidency; mass judicial and media replacement after 2016.

Atlas / Organisations / AKP

AKP

Justice and Development Party · 2001– · Turkey · Islamist Conservative · Electoral party · coding confidence high

+04ECmarket

+08CUtraditional

+08AUmonist

+07SCcentral

+06IDascriptive

−01CHlawful

Each axis runs from −10 to +10, with zero a genuine mixed or balanced position rather than an absence of opinion. A score describes a stated position and a governing record; it is not a judgement of merit. What each score means →

Core principles

Conservative religious identity, national sovereignty, and a strong presidency claiming direct popular mandate.

Economic model

Construction-led growth, credit expansion, unorthodox interest rate policy, large social assistance programmes.

Organisation of powers

Constitution changed by referendum to an executive presidency; mass judicial and media replacement after 2016.

Reading note

Frequently cited alongside Fidesz as the paradigm of electorally competitive but institutionally anti-pluralist government.

Check a claim about AKP. The interactive atlas measures the distance between any two organisations across all six axes and shows which ones carry the disagreement.

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The evidence for every score

All six cells are sourced. A rationale explains what the score is measuring and each artefact is something a third party can check without taking anyone's word for it.

EC · Economic organisation · scored +04

Coded mildly market: privatisation and construction-led growth alongside very large social assistance and unorthodox rate policy.

Documented act or statuteExtensive privatisation of state enterprises through the 2000s.
Documented act or statuteInterest rates were cut during high inflation from 2021 on the president's stated doctrine.

CU · Social and cultural order · scored +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.

AU · Organisation of power · scored +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.

SC · Scale of decision · scored +07

Coded +7: elected metropolitan authorities constrained and trustees appointed over opposition-held councils.

Documented act or statuteState-appointed trustees replaced elected mayors in dozens of south-eastern municipalities from 2016.

ID · Rule of membership · scored +06

Coded +6 on the Turkish-Sunni definition of the national community.

Documented act or statuteKurdish-language political activity and elected representatives have been prosecuted continuously.

CH · Method and tempo · scored −01

Coded near neutral: change by referendum and legislation, under emergency powers after 2016.

Documented act or statuteRule by emergency decree from July 2016 to July 2018 dismissed over one hundred thousand public employees.

How it moved

Positions are recorded at dated anchor points tied to a documented moment — a programme adopted, a government formed, a reversal. Nothing is interpolated between them, because nothing is known between them. Figures in amber moved by two points or more from the previous anchor.

Anchor	EC	CU	AU	SC	ID	CH	What it is tied to
2002	+05	+06	+02	+04	+04	−05	EU accession reforms; the death penalty abolished and state security courts closed.
2010	+05	+07	+04	+05	+05	−04	Referendum restructures the judiciary; civilian control of the military established.
2017	+04	+08	+07	+06	+06	−02	Executive presidency adopted by referendum after the 2016 coup attempt and mass dismissals.
2024	+04	+08	+08	+07	+06	−01	Opposition mayors prosecuted; unorthodox monetary policy.

Net movement, 2002 to 2024: CU +2, AU +6, SC +3, ID +2, CH +4. A trajectory records where an organisation has been. It does not forecast, and several organisations in this corpus moved a long way with no warning available in advance.

Nearest organisations by measured distance

Straight-line separation across all six axes, out of a maximum of 49.0. Proximity means similarity of stated position, not endorsement and not resemblance in outcome.

Countries

Turkey

Cite this page

Scores are revised on evidence, so a citation should carry the version it refers to. Version 4.3.1 is current; the revision log records every change.

McGrath, K. (2026). AKP. The Political Atlas, version 4.2. https://thepoliticalatlas.com/organisations/akp/ (accessed 2026-08-01).

Free to quote and reproduce with attribution. This is a synthesis rather than a peer-reviewed dataset — where an authoritative figure is needed, cite the Chapel Hill Expert Survey, the Manifesto Project or V-Dem.