Autocratization and citizens’ understanding of eemocracy: Evidence from Turkey

Abstract

This article examines how citizens’ understandings of democracy change during autocratization. It argues that democratic learning shifts through two linked pathways: lived experience of democratic institutions; and exposure to elite discourse. Turkey under the Justice and Development Party offers a most-likely case, combining prolonged autocratization, intensive democratic reframing and repeated survey data. The study first traces changes in learning conditions through narrowing opposition space, civil society erosion, media capture and shifts in regime discourse. It then analyses World Values Survey data from 2007, 2011 and 2018 using an age−period−cohort-informed design. Liberal−procedural understandings decline across waves, with a sharper early drop in the liberal dimension and a steeper late decline among government supporters. Social understandings follow a nonlinear pattern, rising first and then falling, especially on equality. The findings suggest that autocratization may coincide with shifts in citizens’ democratic benchmarks.