Charisma as a Legitimation Strategy: Emotion, Collective Memory, and Ritual in Erdogan’s Turkey

Transitions to authoritarianism bring new forms of legitimacy claims. When personalization accompanies authoritarianism, the charisma of the leader is one typical domain through which legitimacy is claimed. As is underlined by recent scholarship, charisma is not about the leader's extraordinary characteristics. It is rather constructed and performed by the leader in a strategic effort to legitimize its rule. In this paper, we discuss the case of contemporary Turkey based on an analysis of Erdogan's attempt to turn charisma into a source of legitimacy for his personalist power. In doing so, we first show how the leader is constructed as a trustworthy, fearful, and omnipotent leader offering hope for the future. Next, we present how collective memory and political rituals are utilized in creating this leader image and in building people’s attachment to the leader. Through this discussion, we present that charisma construction happens in several domains of government including the law, popular culture, foreign policy, and economic development.