Perception of higher education students towards digitalization within the framework of participatory democracy and digital citizenship: the example of Niğde Ömer Halisdemir University

This research was conducted to investigate the perceptions of master's and doctoral programs studying at Niğde Ömer Halisdemir University Social Sciences and Science Institute regarding digitalization within the framework of democracy and digital citizenship. The equivalent of digitalization in the social system is the digital age, and the counterpart of the political sphere of the digital society is e-government and e-governance. This transformation in the political sphere has brought different dimensions to democracy and citizenship, and a political space that supports and encourages citizen participation has been built. The new political field outputs can be expressed as the Presidential Communication Center (CİMER) Model, e-Government Gateway, Niğde University Request Management System (İYS) and White Table applications. These applications encourage citizens to be more convenient and active in the digitalized political sphere. At the same time, it serves as a communication channel between citizens, the state and accompanying organisms on the digital platform. This synthesis was analyzed using the phenomenological method, one of the qualitative research methods. Interviews were also held in person and via e-mail. A total of 27 students were interviewed. According to the findings obtained from the students in the study group, it was determined that they thought that digitalization transformed the state and public administration and made the political sphere more participatory for citizens. Participants who support the idea that the democracy model of digitalization is participatory democracy and that citizenship begins to exist as digital citizens support that they can participate in democracy and governance thanks to digitalization. They also state that digital communication channels enable communication between citizens and the state and are a channel for participation in democracy and governance. However, it has been found that there are some determinants for this participation to occur. Some differences regarding the research problem have also emerged among master's and doctoral students at Niğde University Social Sciences and Science departments. These differences are in how democracy transformed by digitalization positions the citizen in the political arena and whether it enables participation in democracy. The findings obtained were examined in detail in our thesis.