Demokrasi bağlaminda referandum uygulamasi: türkiye örneği
Referendum in the Context of Democracy: Turkey Example

Summary/Abstract: Referendums are the most important tools of the direct democracy in order to solve the problems of representative democracy that faced in historical process. United States of America and Switzerland stand out in the context of the referendum and apart from these countries referendum is used by many countries but the usage of referendum depends on the social and political cultural characteristics of the countries. Therefore, it is not possible to talk about a certain implementation standard at the referendum point. In recent years, it has been observed that referendum practices have increased rapidly around the world. At the same time, especially after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Eastern European and Latin American countries include the concept of referendum in the process of creating a new constitution and adopt their constitutions through referendum, and the democratizing countries or those who are trying to democratize seek social consensus and legitimacy through referendum. The widespread use of referendums has led to an increase in publications about the referendum and as a result, referendums by those working on the referendum and politicians have turned into a good practice tool for solving problems. Firstly, the concept of democracy was mentioned in the study. The concept of democracy has been discussed in the historical process within the framework of direct and representative democracy titles. After then the concept of referendum was examined theoretically. The next section focuses on the development of the democracy in Turkey. In the last part of the study seven referendums that made in turkey since 1961 is evaluated. As a result, it has been observed that the referendum can be a tool for both democracy and politics. For this reason, in order to evaluate the referendum as an instrument of democracy and a phase of the democratization process, representatives and voters should be involved in the process of determining and shaping the agenda subject within the framework of reciprocity. On the contrary, it would be more meaningful to look at the referendum held in a process as an implementation tool of politics rather than as a tool of implementation of democracy.

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