The effect of containment techniques on the formation of political identity: Comparative analysis of the youth branches of Manisa political party provincial organizations

Individuals create their political identities through meaningful symbols coveyed through their social interactions with other individuals, with the frames of meaning they create in their minds. In order to protect their authority and legitimacy, political powers can direct the political identites formed in the minds of individuals in line with their own values, beliefs and ideology through various methods. Containment techniques appear as a method used by goverments in both democratic and totalitarian regimes. However, in the study, it was hypothesized that since the legitimacy and authory of governments in democratic regimes are based on the persuasion of individuals, it becomes more important than it seems that the governments impose their own values, beliefs and ideology on the governed. This study is valuable because it is the first in Turkey in terms of examining the containment technique, which is one of the propaganda methods used by the governments to instill their political cultures. At the same time, this study is important because it examines the value of cantainment techniques, which are throught to be applied in societies with a predominantly totalitarian structure, in democratic societies. In addition to this, in order to make sense of the containment techniques in the study, the containment techniques applied by the governments were examined by giving examples from the Turkish political life. During the study, a detailed literature rewiew was made and no study examining the containment techniques over Turkish political life was found. Therefore, this study is considered valunable in terms of examining Turkish political life through containment techniques. The aim of study is reveal the effect of containment techniques on political identity and application forms of cantainment techniques in democratic societies. In the study, the ways in which governments apply containment techniques are examined with the frame analysis method of Erving Goffman, and the concepts of switching and fabrication that Goffman put forward are also included among the ways in which the power applies containment techniques. The sample of the study is the youth branches of Manisa Province Justice and Development Party, Nationalist Movement Pary, Republican People's Party and Good Party provincial organizations. In the study, data were obtained as a result of semi-structured interviews, and the analyzed by qualitative content analysis method. As a result of the study, the hypothesis that containment techniques are important in democratic regimes has been confirmed and the ways in which the political powers apply the containment techniques have been made visible.