Turmoil and Turkey's Economic Miracle

ErdoÄ?an has presided over a decade of exceptional economic growth backed by record support from voters. The combination has made him more brazen in his use of power, and many Turks bristle at his attitude—that ballot box victories give him license to act like an autocrat. They say he ignores critics of such policies as his recent restrictions on liquor sales and possible constitutional changes enlarging the powers of the president. “At the heart of it really is a completely majoritarian understanding of democracy in which the prime minister sees himself in a position of complete power because he has 50 percent of the vote. But he completely disregards the other 50 percent,” says Kerem Oktem, a research fellow at Oxford, who is currently in Istanbul.