Evaluation of the leader effect on young voters in voting behavior: The case of the AK Party and CHP youth wings

Elections, which are indispensable elements of democracy in the historical process, have differed in terms of methods and practices. Although many different electoral systems have been applied to date, no major changes have been observed in the factors affecting voter preferences. Sometimes, there was a situation where individuals could not express their thoughts freely during economic and political problems or when social consciousness was not fully formed. However, with the developing understanding of democracy, the ways for individuals to make free decisions in electoral systems have been opened. Along with the privilege of free decision-making, many factors can be mentioned that affect voter behavior. However, the perception of the voter regarding the political leader or actor has recently come to the fore as a factor shaping voting behavior. In this study, the perception of political leader, which is one of the factors affecting voter behavior, was examined with the views of the youth branches of the two political parties, especially with the dimension of young voters. The reason for the election of young people who participate in politics in traditional ways is to analyze the relationship between the voting behavior of young voters and the image of political leader, in line with their experiences in analyzing voter behavior and their political thoughts as young people. In this study, which was designed as a qualitative research, the findings obtained as a result of in-depth interviews with a total of nine young people working in the headquarters of the ruling party (Ak Parti) and the main opposition party (CHP) were subjected to content analysis with the help of NVivo12, one of the qualitative research software programs, and coding and categorization stages were performed. As a result, sub-themes were formed under three main themes.