The Role of political placards in the motivation of voters: The example of political placards used by the CHP and MHP in the general and local elections in 1999

SUMMARY In democratic systems, in which political powers are shaped with the ones that are governed, the, voters behovior is of great importance. Political parties which canvey massages that meet the needs, expectations and favours of the voters, which play their roles well and which maintain effective political campaingns are more succesfull and are more likely to came to power. The behavior of voters are affected by severel internal ard external factors. There may be sociologic, psychologic and culturel factors as well as the missions, the sig, the propaganda maintained during elections campaigns, and the means and metods of mass media that are used during political activities. The means that are user during political campaigns provides voters with variors information of a party, condidate of agende and thus effects. Their decisions and increases their motivation to vote for a party or condidate. One of these means are placards. Political parties make use of theories of motivation in order to motivate voters in favour of them in the slogans that are used in political poacard during election campaigns. In general, theories of motivation are used by social psychologists and administrators in order to ewplan individual and employee behavior. İn this studytheories of motivation are tried to be used to examine politics in general and political placards in particular. The study ansists of there main parts. The first part is devoted to the examinations of the concepts and theories of motivation, the second part is devoted to the explanatios of the effects of factors and political campaigns to the behavior of voters, the third part is devoted the examinations of the political placards in terms of theories of motivation that were used by the CHP and MHP in the general and local elections in 18 April 1999 and in the general elections in 3 November 2002. 273