POLITICAL BEHAVIOURS OF ALBANIAN AND TURKISH ELECTORATES

Abstract

Political behaviors of electorates are important indicator of any democratic political system. This study sheds light on political behaviors of Albanian and Turkish electorates since the year 2000 during the general elections of these countries. It is a comparative case study which relies on quantitative empirical data, some of which have been collected for this study and the other is available from the national statistics institutes of the countries. The study finds out that there were similar political behaviour between these countries and these similarities come from historical and cultural perception on politics. It is clear that democracy is relatively new in these countries, but their political perception has been rooted from 14th Century. This study establishes a link with the electorate turnout and democratic cultures of these countries that low turnout or high turnout is seen a sign of political alienation rather than political culture. The findings of this study deny that even the low turnout would be accepted as the higher awareness of the democratic culture. Finally, this study concludes that political behaviors have closer link with the leaders, political ideologies of political parties and available information on political parties and their work.