"Yes” or “no”: An analysis of the 2010 referendum in Turkey

Özden Melis Uluğ; Arda Bilgen

doi:10.22151/politikon.18.1

Authors

Özden Melis Uluğ Jacobs University
Arda Bilgen Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22151/politikon.18.1

Keywords:

referendum, Turkey, case study, psychology, democracy

Abstract

Referendums are used as last-ditch devices to resolve issues in certain contexts. This was the case in Turkey, as the current Justice and Development Party government decided to hold a constitutional referendum on September 12, 2010 to amend the current Constitution of 1982, ratified by the military junta of 1980- 1983. At the end, 58% of the voters voted “Yes”, as opposed to 42% of “No” votes. However, despite its enormous political and social impact, the subject remains under-researched and in need of explanation. This study gives a snapshot and evaluation of the 2010 referendum campaign according to relevant theories of psychology and political science. Accordingly, this study denotes eleven interrelated factors of crucial importance in similar referendums and discusses their representation in the context of referendum, thus, contributes to the literature in terms of explaining both psychological and political factors in the referendums.

Author Biographies

Özden Melis Uluğ, Jacobs University

Özden Melis Uluğ, 25, is a PhD candidate in Psychology at Jacobs University Bremen in Germany. Her research interests include conflict and peace, identity and group conflicts, political violence, and how societies understand these processes. More specifically, she is focusing on the Turkish-Kurdish conflict in Turkey. She holds an MSc degree in Political Psychology from Queen’s University Belfast in Northern Ireland, and a BSc major in Psychology and minor in Studies in Politics from the Middle East Technical University in Turkey.

Arda Bilgen, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn

Arda Bilgen, 25, is a PhD student in Development Studies at Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn in Germany. His research interests are in Turkish foreign policy, Turkish domestic politics, transnational security, terrorism, and security-development nexus. He holds an MA degree in International Security Studies from the George Washington University in Washington, DC and a BA degree in International Relations from Bilkent University in Turkey.