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Murat Önder & Niyazi Karabulut
have norms and these norms affect the behavior of groups. Group members know that
punishment is normal when they do not comply with norms. Thus, individual’s moving
together with the group in the voting behavior is the assumption of a sociological ap-
proach (Çavuşoğlu and Pekkaya, 2016:21). Sociologists often find voting in a socially
embedded properties of relationships among people (Granovetter, 1985: 490) or instituti-
ons (Zucker, 1986: 57). Their assumptions of human beings as socially rational behavior
are directed by formal obligations and informal relations (Önder, 2011b:155). Significant
criticism has arisen since 1990s, as it has not been the theoretical basis for voting in
class-based voter behavior. There are studies in Turkey that reveal findings about soci-
ological voting behavior in political communication studies that examining the effect of
religious voting behavior sociologically (Damlapınar and Balcı, 2014:105-106).
Psychological Approach or Identification With The Party
Psychologists commonly frame their assessments in terms of attributes of individuals
and focus upon a host of internal cognitions that personal attributes yield. It comes from
their assumptions that human being behaves irrationally based upon past experiences,
future forecasts, and based upon characteristics of individuals (Önder 2011b:156). The
psychological approach is basically the commitment of the electorate to a party. Cam-
pbell and his colleagues at the Michigan school found that there is a strong relationship
between voter preference and party identity. The psychological approach has brought the
term party identity to literature. Psychological approach also focuses on subject orien-
tation and candidate orientation variables. The attitude of the electorate is expressed
some way in the context of the current problems in the subject orientation. The attitude
of the voter towards the personal qualities of the candidate is examined with the candi-
date orientation (Çavuşoğlu and Pekkaya, 2016:22). In Turkey, voters’ choice of political
parties in the past years, the psychology of identification with the party. As a result, this
identification with the party in Turkey is not considered as the most important voting fac-
tor (Damlapınar and Balcı, 2014:107-108).
Economic Approach
Economic framework tends to focus on immediate situational factors in the context of
game settings and posits that “voting” is a function of relatively rational decision making
processes (Harrison, 1998: 474), rather than social and personality characteristics. The-
ir main assumptions that human is economically rational and self-interested behavior,
constrained by contracts and controls (Önder, 2011b). In this approach voters while
voting, look at the implementation of the ruling party, their economic success and at this
time, they consider the change in the economic situation of the country. The voter takes
his/her own interests into consideration and votes the party s/he believes will provide
him/her with a better economic prosperity. Therefore, the basic hypothesis of the econo-
