State of Emergency and Democratic Backsliding: The Case of Turkey (2016–2018).

This study analyzes how Turkey's declaration of a state of emergency following the failed 2016 coup attempt accelerated an ongoing process of democratic backsliding that began in 2011. It focuses on the Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, AKP) and its strategic use of emergency decrees (kanun hükmünde kararname, KHK) to expand executive power, suppress opposition—particularly Kurdish political movements and the Gülen movement—and consolidate a presidential system through the 2017 constitutional amendments. Employing meta-constitutional analysis, the study situates Turkey's experience within broader patterns of democratic erosion in Southwest Asian and North African (SWANA) countries, highlighting how emergency rule can be normalized and exploited to undermine the rule of law and dismantle democratic institutions. The findings underscore the role of legal and institutional mechanisms in facilitating authoritarian consolidation under the guise of crisis management.