Author(s): Adem ÇAYLAK** Murat KAÇER
It is often stated that democracy is "the only game in the town", and invention of another more ideal and better regime than democracy seems not feasible. One of the most important elements of democracy is political participation. The quality of the democracy is directly related to the level of engagement of citizens in politics. Voting is also the most common type of political participation with requiring little initiative for most people. The aim of this study is to compare the voter turnout rate in Turkey with global voter turnout. For this purpose, firstly, participation rates for all elections held between 1950-2015 in Turkey (parliamentary, local, referendum and presidential elections) were introduced. Then, the voter turnout rate in the world between 1950-2010 and average voter turnout over 10 years in the thirty-six countries between 1940-2000 were also presented and these are compared with the voter turnout rate in Turkey.This will provide an insight into Turkey's place in the world concerning participation performance in elections. It is believed that this study is distinctive and important in this respect.
The Journal of International Social Research received 8982 citations as per Google Scholar report
