The Role of voters choices in the evaluation of social democracy in Turkey

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the transformation of social democratic ideology in Turkey. The "Left of Center" discourse, which is a slogan of Republican People's Party (RPP) and shaped the social democratic ideology, first appeared during 1960's, became so strong in the following decade, and during the following period took the most serious electoral defeat in 1999. The evaluation of the transformation of social democratic ideology during all this time is based on the general parliamentary elections between 1961 and 2002. When we try to evaluate the social democratic ideology according to its basis and social foundations there occur incompatibilities and characteristic differences between Europe and Turkey that naturally affect RPP. On the other hand while analyzing the results of the general elections between 1961 and 2002, the effects of social preferences and priorities on the transformation of social democratic ideology are studied together with this fact.