Manifesto

Since its founding in 2001, the AK Parti has entered 13 elections of the local, general, presidential and referendum kind. The upcoming local elections will be the 14th. That is to say, the ballot box has been visited 14 times in 18 years.

The best way for a political party to prove itself is through election processes, and in all of these elections the AK Parti has, without exception, won by a wide margin.

This much time and this many elections provide us with sufficient data, in every respect, to draw inferences about the AK Parti's political style and even, if there has been a change from one period to another in terms of manner, tone, discourse and politics, to identify and record it.

Coming first by a wide margin in all 14 elections in a row, without losing any of its strength, makes the AK Parti highly exceptional in terms of Turkey's political history. There is no such party and no such political movement in Turkey's political history.

This span of time has granted it, again, an exceptional opportunity and authority to shape the country. And the AK Parti never hesitated to use this authority. However modestly the AK Parti's leader behaved toward his own citizens, he never behaved modestly in representation. He did not let the rights of the segments whose representation he had undertaken be eaten up by others through needless games of modesty. This was what was expected, and by doing it, with his stance that was modest toward the people but extremely dignified toward those who were arrogant toward the people, he proved to all and sundry that relying solely on one's people is quite enough to stand firm in politics.

Yet the traditional theory of power had instilled the exact opposite in all the politicians before him, and even in his rival politicians opposing him. What had to be won over in order to hold power was not the people but certain secret circles, the centers of power that saw themselves as the real owners of power.

In a sense, the AK Parti reached the single-party advantage that the CHF, which founded the Republic, used between 1923 and 1950. But unlike the CHF, it received this authority from the people themselves, under no pressure, in contests of free elections in which everyone took part on equal terms. Whereas the CHF, which later turned into the CHP, had lost the first elections it entered by a democratic path and had given way to the Demokrat Parti.

One inference that can be drawn about the 14 elections is that before every election the AK Parti has turned into a tradition the announcement of a Manifesto, in which it declares to its people in clear language, as a pledge, what it will do.

Indeed, it is not usual for ruling parties to announce a manifesto. Manifestos are generally texts expected from opposition parties that try to put forward strong alternatives against the government and promise other hopes against it. The first to begin this tradition in history were Karl Marx and F. Engels, with the famous Communist Manifesto, which attributes a single identity to the workers of the whole world and invites them to unite under international solidarity.

It is, of course, oppositional to the very end. It promises to change the world from its roots and to rid it of the distorted relations of economic exploitation that it believes it is in. It has a language that greatly disturbs the bourgeoisie, capitalism and the holders of power. So much so that the whole trick of capitalism since then has been to try to find rational solutions against this manifesto. Perhaps Marx's Messiah, the working class, could not change the world directly as an actor, but no one can deny that, owing to the measures taken against it, it made a serious contribution to the world's change.

Now, if a manifesto is to be written in Turkey, does not everyone have a right to expect it from the opposition? The AK Parti has been in power for 17 years. If we count the Refah Partisi in this account as well, the AK Parti has also been running the local administrations for 25 years. Yet it is again the AK Parti that writes the manifesto, and still not a voice comes from the CHP on this matter. If only it had written a disturbing manifesto, one that, even without coming to power, indirectly influenced the government.

What is interesting is that it is not found strange at all that the AK Parti, before every election it has entered since the day it came to power, publishes a manifesto, almost stealing the role of the opposition parties.

Indeed, each of the items in the manifesto that President Erdoğan summarized in 11 points is actually a heading on which AK Parti municipal government already has quite an accumulation of experience.

In each of the headings announced as City Plans, Infrastructure and Transport, Urban Transformation, Unique Cities, Smart Cities, Environmentally Friendly Cities, Social Municipality, Horizontal Urbanization, Governing Together with the People, Saving and Transparency, and Value-Producing Cities, the AK Parti has a record that voters can now evaluate, a rich history of implementation.

In a way, in its manifesto the AK Parti has the advantage of describing what it will do by reference to what it has done. Yet, knowing that the decision will be made by the people, it announces its manifesto each time with a new spirit and excitement. It must never be forgotten that the people reveal their stance by giving a grade to what has been done.

Perhaps the AK Parti's greatest advantage is that it has so far listened very closely to sociology. Of course, the continuation of dialogue with society, of an organic relationship and of representation is not achieved through dry sociological analyses alone. The sincerity and organic quality that come into play there, the political habitus that begins in the leader's personal style and permeates down to the base, have carried the party to a very good point with an exceptional example to this day.

Only, it is also worthwhile to check the settings of this habitus often. It is of course essential that the warning systems that made President Erdoğan sound the "metal fatigue" alarm give timely and correct warnings, and that these warnings be assessed in a timely and appropriate way.

The AK Parti's 2019 local government election manifesto, or all election manifestos, are very important texts that make theoretical and practical analyses possible for political science.

Both in terms of their content and in terms of the different dialogue established with the voter while heading into an election process.