Political tendencies in the perspective of ethnocentrism and otherisation sociological analysis of voting behaviour in the case of the province of Ardahan

Entitled as Political Tendencies in the erspective of Ethnocentrism and Otherisation: A Sociological Analysis of Voting Behaviour in the Case of the Province of Ardahan, this study alleges that the primordialist group bonds still affect the political and social relationships and ethnocentric tendencies take an important place in general political tendencies unlike the contemporary and prevalent modernist notion of human grouping varies greatly due to symbolic differences rather than biological one. The main objective of this study is to investigate the social and political effects of ethnocentrism in the perspective of political sociology and offer solutions and betterment prescriptions to ethnocentrism which is pregnant to social problems. A field study was conducted via mixed method also referred to as enriched design which consists of quantitative and qualitative methods in the province of Ardahan, which is like a natural laboratory in terms of cultural diversity. For the field study, face to face in-depth interviews were held with 442 people and focus group interview with 4 groups were conducted in city centres, county towns and rural villages in 91 different settlements in total. The data gathered from the current study shows that collective and cultural identities, such as ethnicity, creed, political ideology and extended family are perceived and interpreted as values which are inadvertently and innately owned rather than being symbolical. This primordialist perspective causes to rigid and flexible ethnocentric tendencies with either implicit or explicit appearances in so many areas from marriage relations to political tendencies on macro and micro level. Thus, ethnocentrism deeply affects the social and political life besides holding a pivotal place in general political tendencies. In this context, politics cannot be understood without understanding ethnocentrism. Key Words: Politics, Ethnocentrism, Otherness, Otherisation, Identity, Culture, Multiculturalism, Democracy.