Abstract:

The referendum, one of the instruments of semi-direct democracy, was held for the seventh time on 16 April 2017 in our country. In this sense, referendum is a rare democratic exercise in our country.Even if the referenda are not considered as an election, voters in the end have a political preference in the referendum. Especially in our country, referendums are being held in a political election atmosphere with the campaigns of political parties. In this framework, political behavior in the referendum process is one of the issues that are emphasized. Nonetheless, the work on political behavior in referendums is rather limited. One of the important debates in the referendum period and the post-election period is how young people have expressed a political preference in the referendum. University youth is an important part of young voters. In this sense, field study method was applied in this study which was done in order to determine the view of university youth on 2017 referendum and political preferences. The findings of the faculty interviewed with 450 students at different faculties and vocational colleges in Fırat University were analyzed and the evaluations of the university youth about the political preferences in the referendum were made. According to the findings, it is determined that a significant part of the university youth is interested in medium level politics and political participation is at audience level. In the youth referendum process, university youth have put forth a political preference within the process positions of the parties that they would not vote in a possible general election. Again, the level of political interest of university youth has been identified as an important factor in this process.

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