Construction of labor force's consent to neoliberal policies in Turkey: Class hegemonia or party hegemonia?

With the implementation of neoliberal policies since the 1980s, a structure that supports the exploitation and precariousness of workers started to emerge in Turkey. With neoliberal policies, a situation emerged where the state is seen as an actor of the market and the workers are left alone with the labor market against the neoliberal transformation. This study aims to examine the process of constructing the consent of labor to neoliberal policies through hegemony. Because it is an important issue that labor consents to neoliberal practices despite the flexibility and insecurity it creates. From this point of view, in the first part of the study, the definition of hegemony and the distinction in the literature about the subject of hegemony are mentioned. While the literature on Turkey explains the consent building process in our country, it remains party-oriented and the class hegemony dimension is neglected. For this reason, in order to analyze the formation of the consent of labor in Turkey in depth, this study aims to fill this gap by considering class hegemony. In the second part, the steps taken within the scope of the neoliberal policies implemented in Turkey and their negative effects on the workers are mentioned. In the third chapter, class hegemony, which is thought to be the source of neoliberal policies, is examined and the apparatuses of hegemony that produce the consent of labor are investigated. The consent of labor built by class hegemony is explained through non-unionization, unemployment, consumption culture, the lack of alternatives of capitalism, the acceptance of the values of class hegemony and the media. In the fourth and last part, it has been clarified whether the Justice and Development Party can be defined as the subject of hegemony. At the same time, the effects of AKP on constructing the consent of labor as a systemic implementer of neoliberal policies in Turkey were examined. While making these analyzes, the AKP's frequently used victimization discourse, conservatism, social aid policies and populist discourses were taken into consideration. With the help of these basic devices, this thesis tries to explain how the assumption of party hegemony builds the consent of labor. As a result of the examination of two different hegemony ideas and devices, the positions of the AKP and the bourgeois class in hegemony debates is aimed to be clarified.