Analysis of the European Parliament elections in the context of Habermas' concept of public sphere

Since its foundation, the European Parliament has had the opportunity to be studied in many disciplines. The changes it has undergone and the problem of the democratic deficit have managed to attract the attention of those interested in the subject. In this context, the problem of the thesis is that the European Parliament elections are held with a decreasing rate when compared to years. The main objective of the thesis is to examine the low turnout rates in the elections fort he European Parliament with Habermas's notion of the public sphere. In the literature, both elections and Habermas's studies have been examined separately. However, this study aims to contribute to the literature related to the study of elections with the notion of the public sphere. The question of the thesis is the reason for low voter turnout rates. For this reason, the hypothesis put forward by the thesis is based on the assumption that the European Parliament can be seen as a public space but cannot function efficiently. The method used in this thesis is that of descriptive analysis based on secondary data. The study analyzes what Habermas means by the notion of the public sphere, examines the historical, legal, economic, and sociological developments of the European Parliament, and finally links the concept of the public sphere to the elections to the European Parliament. Evaluating the findings obtained in this thesis, one can claim that it is possible to compare the European Parliament with the political public sphere analyzed by Habermas. Therefore, the main problem that causes the democracy deficit is the assumption of the inadequacy of a political public space, as Habermas expects it to be. As a solution to the current problem, it is emphasized that the citizens who participate in the European Parliament elections can be the leading actor in the development of the political public sphere in the European Parliament if they identify themselves with a critical rational attitude.