Apparatuses of Denunciation, Neoliberal Governmental Rationality, and the Potential for a Fascist Turn

Abstract

Abstract This article explores the sociopolitical causes behind the proliferation of the apparatuses of denunciation in Turkey in the 2010s, and the escalation in the number of citizens denouncing their fellow citizens. These developments have taken place within an international context marked with the initiation of similar campaigns in core capitalist countries (e.g., the United States, United Kingdom) in the post-9/11 period mobilizing citizens to watch for suspicious behaviors that potentially signify “terrorist” activities. In Turkey, the Communication Center for the Office of the President, police hotlines/websites, community policing networks, neighborhood heads, the night-guard system, and legal statutes enabling denunciation are parts of these apparatuses. The article argues that the mechanisms of denunciation surfaced as part of the “security states” that emerged in the late 1990s under the dominance of neoliberal governmental rationality that encompasses components creating a fertile sociopolitical fabric both for the materialization of fascist tendencies and a preference for denunciation as a governmental technology. Accordingly, the apparatuses of denunciation in Turkey emerged at a point where the “security state” constructed by the Justice and Development Party government in its second term (2007–11) delivered a fascist turn within the context of the 2008 global financial crisis.