The Occupy Wall Street and Gezi Protests are both recognized as defining movements in the 21st century. Both movements advocated for social change in an oppressive government, and though the outcomes of each were marked by failures, they still continue to have a lasting impact. Occupy Wall Street and the Gezi Protests both share similarities in the structure and resistance of their movements. However, they also have their differences ranging from how the movements began, and who was there to participate. Both movements accrued thousands of supporters globally, and with the role of social media, they continued to grow. However, both movements also faced division within, and as a result, the opposition parties were able to capitalize. From a
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The Turkish model can be described as Islamic Liberalism. It combined a formal democracy, free-market capitalism, and conservative Islam. According to sociologist Cihan Tugal, “It was not only a successful, growing free market economy, but also a liberalizing democracy. This success, moreover, was based on incorporating the challenge of political Islam, rather than repressing it”(Tugal 4). The Turkish model was a success for Turkey in the eyes of businesses, media, and the elite. However, as the years progressed, the regime grew more authoritative in their plans to remodel Turkey through policy. When the regime’s urban policies carried out the demolition of buildings and property to make way for new infrastructure, a clash between protesters and police at a Gezi Park would spark the biggest revolt in Turkish history, the Gezi Protests. Through these premises, there are a lot of similarity in both movements. Both have institutions that have caused unrest within the population. In the US, there are the big corporations, banks, and US government, while in Turkey, there is an authoritarian regime masked under democracy. Furthermore, it is evident that the methods used by each movement to combat these institutions are similar. However, there is a fair amount of differences between the movements as well. In the following, I will go into depth of the similarities and …show more content…
In the Occupy movement, there is a sense of class-consciousness, while in the Gezi Protests they chose to ignore it. The Gezi Protests composed of a large amount of the middle-class, some of even benefitting from the neoliberal Turkish rule. They in turn chose to ignore class nature. According to Tugal, “Ignoring the class nature of the Gezi revolt automatically shut off a discussion about the lack of massive and sustainable proletarian and subproletarian participation. Hence, by sticking to the illusion that Gezi was a ‘white-collar’ working-class uprising …, those organized actors who had the potential to institutionalize the uprising and create a movement out of it remained oblivious of the reasons why there was no organized class alliance”(Tugal 263). This aspect eventually played a role in the downfall of the movement. The movement ignored other social strata and spread through only middle class communities. Though the occupy movement’s leaders composed of mainly college educated men, there still was a sense of class and how each would play a role in the
The Turkish model can be described as Islamic Liberalism. It combined a formal democracy, free-market capitalism, and conservative Islam. According to sociologist Cihan Tugal, “It was not only a successful, growing free market economy, but also a liberalizing democracy. This success, moreover, was based on incorporating the challenge of political Islam, rather than repressing it”(Tugal 4). The Turkish model was a success for Turkey in the eyes of businesses, media, and the elite. However, as the years progressed, the regime grew more authoritative in their plans to remodel Turkey through policy. When the regime’s urban policies carried out the demolition of buildings and property to make way for new infrastructure, a clash between protesters and police at a Gezi Park would spark the biggest revolt in Turkish history, the Gezi Protests. Through these premises, there are a lot of similarity in both movements. Both have institutions that have caused unrest within the population. In the US, there are the big corporations, banks, and US government, while in Turkey, there is an authoritarian regime masked under democracy. Furthermore, it is evident that the methods used by each movement to combat these institutions are similar. However, there is a fair amount of differences between the movements as well. In the following, I will go into depth of the similarities and …show more content…
In the Occupy movement, there is a sense of class-consciousness, while in the Gezi Protests they chose to ignore it. The Gezi Protests composed of a large amount of the middle-class, some of even benefitting from the neoliberal Turkish rule. They in turn chose to ignore class nature. According to Tugal, “Ignoring the class nature of the Gezi revolt automatically shut off a discussion about the lack of massive and sustainable proletarian and subproletarian participation. Hence, by sticking to the illusion that Gezi was a ‘white-collar’ working-class uprising …, those organized actors who had the potential to institutionalize the uprising and create a movement out of it remained oblivious of the reasons why there was no organized class alliance”(Tugal 263). This aspect eventually played a role in the downfall of the movement. The movement ignored other social strata and spread through only middle class communities. Though the occupy movement’s leaders composed of mainly college educated men, there still was a sense of class and how each would play a role in the