The Mortar of Hegemony: Construction-Led Accumulation Regime in the AKP Period

This article scrutinizes the growing importance of the construction and real estate sectors in the Turkish economy during the rule of the Justice and Development Party. In this respect, it has been shown by factual data that construction and real estate sectors have assumed pivotal roles in the economy as growth engines, and it has been argued that this construction boom has been made possible through the systematic choices of the JDP governments. The evaluation about motivations of this strategic choice has revealed that this choice is not merely a reflection of the ascending importance of built-environment production in contemporary capitalism that is taking place across the globe, but has been shaped by certain extra-economic factors that are related with the new hegemonic project of the JDP. In this context, the choice of construction has provided JDP the means to transform the power relations within the capitalist class by forming a capitalist class fraction that is organically linked with the party as well as to integrate large masses into its hegemonic project through an Islamic-modernist discourse