Socio-Economic Change and Political Participation: The Case of Kahramanmaras 1950-2002

Abstract

The mechanism of the political life in a country is closely related with political participation tendencies of citizens in that country. These tendencies are determined in part by knowledge, psychological factors and socio-economic background. It is widely known that major studies on political participation use field researches and election results for predicating them. There are also a number of studies on general political participation in Turkey, but researches on local areas are quite limited. This study aims to determine relations between socio-economic variations and electors' turnout in Kahramanmaras Province. First, results of general elections between 1950 - 2002 and socio-economic change in the province are examined and than electors' turnout based on some basic period is analyzed.