Themes of Democracy in Everyday Knowledge

This study aimed to examine how citizens in Türkiye conceptualize democracy. The study was conducted with participants living in Istanbul, a highly heterogeneous city that is thought to represent Türkiye well. Semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with 30 participants using questions on democracy developed by the researcher and thesis advisor based on the literature and finalized through pilot interviews. These interviews were conducted both individually and in the form of focus group interviews. The data obtained from the interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis, a qualitative analysis method. Accordingly, 789 codes were obtained; 33 sub-themes and 11 themes were extracted from these codes. These themes are: “Democracy that is impossible,” “Democracy that depends on preconditions,” ‘Democracy that is a better system than its alternatives,” “Democracy with disadvantages,” “Democracy defined by liberal values,” “Democracy defined by economic and social benefits,” “Democracy defined by institutions and procedures,” “Responsibility of democracy,” “Restricted democracy,” “Democracy evaluated in a universal/cultural dimension,” “Democracy without compromise, These themes indicate that democracy is conceptualized through diverse and comprehensive dimensions. At the same time, findings that can be considered specific to this study reveal the effects of the social, cultural, and political context in which the participants live, and their past and current democratic experiences have been obtained. These findings support the idea that democracy is a social structure whose meanings and forms change according to social and cultural differences.