 |
How to Fix DemocracyAuthor: Bertelsmann Foundation
Since its origins, democracy has been a work in progress. Today, many question its resilience. How to Fix Democracy, a collaboration of the Bertelsmann Foundation and Humanity in Action, explores practical solutions for how to address the increasing threats democracy faces. Host Andrew Keen interviews prominent international thinkers and practitioners of democracy. Language: en Genres: News, Philosophy, Politics, Society & Culture Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
Listen Now...
Soli Özel | Democratic Resilience or Illusion? Lessons from Turkey
Episode 4
Monday, 27 April, 2026
In this episode of How to Fix Democracy, we turn to Turkey to explore what democratic resilience like over the long arc of history. Joined by the political scientist Soli Oezel, the conversation traces more than a century of "bouts of freedom" punctuated by military interventions, constitutional resets, and shifting balances between state authority and popular will. From the late Ottoman period to the present, Oezel examines how Turkey's political system has repeated oscillated between openness and control, highlighting the military's historical role as both guardian and disruptor of democracy, and the more recent shift toward a fully civilian, yet increasingly liberal, political order. Despite these tensions, one constant remains: the enduring importance of elections and the deep-rooted expectation among citizens that their voices should count. The episode also probes deeper structural questions. Why have liberal democratic norms struggled to take hold? How do state-centric traditions, nationalism, and unresolved identity questions, particularly around the Kurdish issue, shape political life? And what explains the persistence of democratic aspirations even under pressure? At its core, this conversation challenges a common assumption: that democracy's resilience is primarly institutional or cultural. Instead, Oezel argues that it hinges on something more tangible, whether democratic systems deliver economic security, opportunity, and a sense of fairness. When they do, they build legitimacy; when they don't, they risk erosion from within.
