When Erdogan says, "Democracy is like a train. You take it where you have to go, and then you get off," the progressives agree on the principle but disagree on the destination. They just want scientific government, as opposed to islamic. Everything they do is couched in the language of rationality, evidence and academia. They have papers and studies for everything.

The question then is why even have elections if the best policy can be determined in academies? Why not dissolve congress and just establish a technocratic state? The typical answer is that power wants to stay hidden. That's definitely a part of it. But I think the reason is rather that we have not yet arrived at the destination.