Political Islam as reactionary countermovement

By drawing on Polanyi’s discussion of different political forms taken by the inevitable reaction of society to the tensions inherent in the market economy, this chapter investigates of the rise of political Islam in Turkey after the insertion of the country in the global market economy as a “reactionary countermovement†which presents a society-specific response to the social disruptions associated with market expansion. The chapter argues that the recent trajectory of political Islam in Turkey was shaped by both domestic factors and certain characteristics of the global context which enabled reactionary political currents to appear as viable channels in which the feelings of insecurity caused by the market-led socio-economic transformations could be expressed.