University Youths’ Perception of Democracy in the Process of Turkey’s Accession to the European Union

Author(s):

Mustafa Yunus EryamanSalih Zeki GencMartina Riedler

Conference:

ECER 2010

Network:

22. Research in Higher Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

22 SES 08 A, Inequality and Diversity in Higher Education Settings

Paper Session

Time:

2010-08-26

17:15-18:45

Room:

M.B. SALI 14, Päärakennus / Main Building

Chair:

Monne Wihlborg

Contribution

The meaning of the word “democracy” and its usage has varied over time (Lively, 1975; Baechler, 1995; Cunningham, 2002). What was understood as democracy in classical Athens differs from what may be understood as democracy today. Not only the concept of democracy has change, but there have also been differences in the valuation of democracy as well as differences in the conceptions of democracy (Lane & Ersson, 2003).

Democracy, which is based on the wealth of thought, enables oneself introduce, is a lifestyle that requires to be receptive to other people’s ideas. Each individual’s living, experience, and reflection of the world of the knowledge, having specific world of idea and perspective, and the reality that those different perspectives and experiences might have utilities while taking decisions for society underlies the democracy.

One of the major turning points for the democratization process in Turkey is the opening of its accession negotiations for European Union membership. The EU has significant impact on the democratization process in Turkey due to its political conditionality and through Turkey’s adaptation of its rules and laws to those of the EU. Thus, the process of membership negotiations impacts the Turkey's democratization process in a significant way. This paper proposes that as Turkey moves towards meeting the EU’s standards in democracy as part and parcel of its accession requirements,

Democracy is a culture, and it gains meaning if it is carried out with its whole corporations. Young people constitute the vast majority of societies. Turkey is also such a country that young and dynamic people constitute considerable part of population. Thus, determining the university youths’ perception of democracy in Turkey composes the main purpose of this research.

Method

A Quantitative Survey method has been employed in this study. Research data were gathered through questionnaires. First, literature and various questionnaire forms were analyzed, and an “University Youths' Democratic Attitude Survey” has been developed. In the data analysis stage, the data was organized by using MS Excel, and then evaluated with the SPSS/PC (11.5) (Statistical Package of Social Science) software. In this evaluation, Frequency and percentage, t-test, Pearson R correlation analysis, and one-way analysis of variance were used, and meaningfulness levels are taken as 0.05 and 0.01.

Expected Outcomes

The expected outcomes of the study are: 1. identifying key issues of the university youths' perception of democracy and the EU, 2. developing a common sensitivity toward the local and European level problems of university youths' participation to the democratic process and creating collaborative efforts to solve these problems, 3. providing policy makers, university administrators, academicians and students with knowledge about participatory democracy, EU accession process, youths' role in creating just and democratic society in Turkey

References

Beachler, J. (1995) Democracy: An Analytical Survey. Paris: UNESCO. Cunningham, F. (2002) Theories of Democracy: A Critical Introduction. London: Routledge. Dewey, J. (1966) Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education. New York, NY: Free Pres. Lively, J. (1975) Democracy. Oxford: Blackwell. Kuzgun, Y. (2001) Eğitimde Kendini Gerçekleştirme, Şimşek, A. (Edt.) Sınıfta Demokrasi, Ankara.

Author Information

Mustafa Yunus Eryaman

Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University

Elementary Education

Canakkale

Salih Zeki Genc

Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University / EAB

School of Education

Canakkale

Martina Riedler

Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Turkey

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