Abstract:

This study, which focuses on the relationship between the phenomena of political participation and external political efficacy, was carried out with a survey conducted on university students. In this study, the phenomenon of External Political Efficacy is discussed in line with Balch's (1974, p. 24) explanation as "'external efficacy' is the belief that political authorities or the regime are sensitive to influencing initiatives". In this context, a two-question scale obtained by the internal/external distinction brought by Craig et al. (1990, pp. 292-294) to the statements measuring the "sense of political efficacy" in the pioneering study of Campbell et al. (1954, p. 187) was used. The political participation scale was adapted from the study of Caprara et al. (2009, p. 1012). The questionnaire was applied to 280 people according to the easily accessible sampling method and through a web-based questionnaire. We analysed frequency distributions and Kendall's Tau Correlation coefficients by using SPSS 23 software. The analysis was limited to the types of participation in which subjects gave "Yes" and "Sometimes" answers to the participation types included in the political participation scale. As a result of the study, we observed that while the political participation in the form of voting behaviour increased, the sense of External Political Efficacy also increased. This finding is consistent with the findings in the literature. Further research is needed for its relationship with other forms of political participation.

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