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Perceptions of the University Students on The Presidential System: The Case of Konya
JOURNAL OF YOUTH RESEARCHES
The participants most interested in the positive aspects of the presidential govern-
ment system agree that “decisions will be taken faster”. Secondly, “the dualism in
the parliamentary system will come to an end” and the third is the view that “stability
will be achieved by preventing coalitions”. In addition, it appears that the idea of
“presidential government system will cause an authoritarian rule” appears to be the
most negative aspect of the presidential system, put forward by the participants. Of
four political parties in the parliamentary elections during the referendum process, the
AK Party was seen as the most successful party, and the second was the Nationalist
Movement Party which was regarded as successful by 65.16% of the participants.
One of the possible reasons for the highly successful campaign perception of the
MHP can be explained by the support of the AK Party voters in this regard. The coa-
lition seems to have formed a positive opinion especially on the AK Party electorate.
If the questionnaire had been applied in the eastern regions of the country, a likely
different result would have emerged. In addition, a large majority of the participants
found that the Republican People’s Party and the People’s Democratic Party were
unsuccessful in the referendum process in terms of election work.
Overall Assessment and Conclusion
In the study, crucial outcomes in terms of university students’ approach to change
in Turkish politics are obtained. The first of them is about the means and reasons af-
fecting university students in Turkey while deciding on a new system of government.
Considering that the students in the study are generally close to the political parties
advocating the change of the new government system, it is important to consider that
there is no single justification for this. The second issue is how much the university
students have related to the propaganda tools that can change the voting behavior
over the new government system. According to research findings, university students
have had the opportunity to review a leaflet about the constitutional amendments,
but only half of them have participated in any conference. In this context, it has been
determined that university students are very interested in promotional tools for the
government system in general.
The responses to questions over determining the perceptions and attitudes of uni-
versity students towards the presidential government system provide important in-
formation. According to this, the most important positive perceptions about the new
presidential government system of students participating in the survey are focused
on strong execution, quick decision making, double elimination and stability. Negative
judgments are largely shaped by concerns of authoritarianism and regime change.
Undoubtedly, at the beginning of the most important questions against all these posi-
tive and negative judgments, the attitude of the participants was that the age of elec-
