The active character of the social policy became one of the most important features of the economic course provided by Justice and Development Party (AKP) since it has come to power in Turkey in 2002. The paper focuses on main orientation and reforming principles of social policy. Particular attention is given to the institutions providing various types of social support to the poorest segment of the population. Such kind of support occupies to be extra important in social policy in recent years. According to the author, the active social policy of the authorities should be regarded as a new form of economic populism, rather than a strategy to create a socially oriented market economy in Turkey. The author argues her position by the fact that the process of providing social support is politicized, as well as the fact that social expenses of such kind lead to delay in solving actual long-term economic tasks - to achieve less dependency ratio of economic growth on external fi nancial sources, to improve the qualitative characteristics of the national labour force.