Married and single voters' evaluation of factors affecting voting behaviour: Case of Keçiören

The democracy concept which the present political systems mostly uses in every field is used as the key concept on political administration. The types of political participation which influence and formulate democratic governance mechanisms are addressed as important democratic indicators. The most commonly and the most effectively used form of the political participation that we faced is voting. In the elections which done periodically in order to determine the management mechanisms, the citizens whose have the status of elector are voting the political party which they desired. The elector behavior as a subject that we faced is multidimensional. Voting preferences of voters varies as under which factors are determined. There are multiple factors that effects voting preferences of voters. The presence of confidentiality in decision making and implementation makes it impossible for the voter's behavior to be explained in a certain way. In this study, puts forth the effects of being married and single on the voter choices. The marriage factor that adds important responsibilities and obligations to the lives of individuals is reflected on voters party preferences. The voters take into account the different policies of political parties within the responsibilities that comes with marital status in decision-making. There are too many studies in literature which trying to explain the effect of marital status on voter behavior. This study together with the fieldwork demonstrates the effect of marriage on voter behavior with tangible data. In this study, which attempts to reveal the effects of being married or single on the behaviour of voters, the theorical approaches that are most often used (the rational approach, the socio-psychological aprroach and the sociological aprroach) when explaining voter behaviour were addressed. In the lights of fieldwork conducted along with this, the single or married factor, which affects voter behaviour, is associated with the rational approach, the socio-psychological approach, and the sociological approach from amongst the theoretical approache. With the data obtained in the fieldwork conductud in order to bring new perspectives to work on voter behaviour, it has been determined that the voters marital status(single or married) affects their voting decisions in a way that is corrolated to more than one factor.