Electioneerings of the Democratic Party in the general parliamantary elections (1946-1957).

Democrat Party, which was founded on 7th January 1946, had an important function on the foundation of a democratic state layout in the Republic of Turkey. In the first general election, in 1950, after about the six months of its foundation, came to power by making an end of Republican People's Party (Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi) and its 27-year power. It stayed in power for ten years until the 27th May 1960 coup. Some important developments had been realized during Democrat Party power both in domestic and foreign policy. For his reason, this era had been examined in many studies. In the first part of our thesis, the concept of propaganda, historical development of election propagandas and the foundation of Democrat Party were studied. In the next parts, the Democrat Party parliamentary election propagandas, which are the main subject of our thesis, were evaluated. Democrat Party took part in the four general parliamentary elections of 1946, 1950, 1954 and 1957. In the first two of these elections, it took part as an opposition party; in the other two elections it took part as a ruling party. The core of our study is to specify the strategy that Democrat Party followed in these elections, and the written, visual and operational propaganda materials it used. Besides the experiences in domestic and foreign policy that happened in the period of the decision of election; it is also specified the effects of these propagandas on the political preferences of the electors, on the transformation of Republican People's Party into the adaptation to democracy by leaving one-party mentality, and on the Turkish political life. Keywords: Democrat Party, Bayar, Menderes, Election, Propaganda, Poster.