ErdoÃÂanism () refers to the political ideals and agenda of Turkish president and former prime minister, Recep Tayyip ErdoÃÂan, who became prime minister in 2003 and served until his election to the Presidency in 2014. With support significantly derived from charismatic authority, ErdoÃÂanism has been described as the "strongest phenomenon in Turkey since Kemalism" and used to enjoy broad support throughout the country until the 2018 Turkish economic crisis which caused a significant decline in ErdoÃÂan's popularity.
Its ideological roots originate from Turkish conservatism and its most predominant political adherent is the governing Justice and Development Party (AK Parti), a party that ErdoÃÂan himself founded in 2001. It is seen by some as a Third Way ideology.
As a personified version of conservative democracy, key ideals of ErdoÃÂanism include a religious inspired strong centralised leadership based primarily on electoral consent and less so on the separation of powers and institutional checks and balances. Critics have often referred to ErdoÃÂan's political outlook as authoritarian and as an elective dictatorship. The election-centric outlook of ErdoÃÂanism has often been described as an illiberal democracy by foreign leaders, such as Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
ErdoÃÂanism is also strongly influenced by the desire to establish a 'New Turkey', departing from the founding Kemalist principles of the Turkish Republic and abolishing key enshrined constitutional ideals that are at odds with ErdoÃÂan's vision, such as secularism. Supporters of ErdoÃÂanism often call for a revival of cultural and traditional values from the Ottoman Empire and are critical of the pro-western social reforms and modernisation initiated by the founder of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. Grassroots support for ErdoÃÂanism mainly originates from the development of a cult of personality around ErdoÃÂan, as well as the predominance of charismatic authority. The role of ErdoÃÂan personified as an individual agent of Turkish conservative values has manifested itself in the form of prominent campaign slogans for the Turkish Presidential election such as "Man of the nation", translated in Turkish as "Milletin Adamñ".
The term <nowiki>'ErdoÃÂanism'</nowiki> first emerged shortly after ErdoÃÂan's 2011 general election victory, where it was predominantly described as the AK Party's conservative democratic ideals fused with ErdoÃÂan demagoguery and cult of personality. The usage of the term increased in conjunction with a greater recognition of ErdoÃÂan on the global stage, mostly due to his proactive foreign policy ideals based on Neo-Ottomanism, a core factor that ErdoÃÂanism encompasses.
Mustafa Akyol has conceived ErdoÃÂanism as an ideology fundamentally based on a cult of personality around ErdoÃÂan, referring to it as a form of populist authoritarianism similar to that of Putinism in Russia. Akyol also describes the glorification of the Ottoman Empire, Islamism, suspicion of Western political intervention in the Middle East, the rejection of Kemalism, and confinement of the democratic process and elections as key attributes of ErdoÃÂanism. For other scholars the anti-Kemalist political direction is equaled with anti-Westernism.
Though elements of ErdoÃÂanism, particularly the political rhetoric used by its supporters, have been inspired from Islamism, the extensive cult of personality surrounding ErdoÃÂan has been argued to have isolated hardline Islamists who are sceptical of his dominance in state policy. The central and overarching authority of ErdoÃÂan, a central theme of ErdoÃÂanism, has been criticised by Islamists who believe that devotion of followers should not be towards a leader, but rather to Allah and the teachings of Islam. As such, the overarching dominance of ErdoÃÂan has furthered Islamist criticism, particularly by Islamist parties such as the Felicity Party (SP), who have claimed that ErdoÃÂanism is not based on Islamism but is instead based on authoritarianism using religious rhetoric to maintain public support amongst the conservative base of the electorate.