Participation in social protests: comparing Turkey with EU patterns

Although Turkey is no stranger to protest events, there has been only limited research into why some people participate in protests, such as demonstrations and boycotts, while others do not. Using the 2008 European Values Study data, this paper investigates how socio-economic and demographic variables, political attitudes and orientations, social capital and religiosity explain variations in the likelihood of engaging in unconventional political activity in Turkey. Comparing results for Turkey with results for the European Union (EU), the present study finds that traditional explanations of participation in unconventional forms of political action in stable democracies do not seem to explain participation in Turkey. Education, institutional trust, democratic satisfaction and religious beliefs are the only factors that shape non-traditional participation in Turkey. Socio-economic and demographic characteristics, political attitudes and orientations, social capital and religious beliefs explain most of the variation in unconventional activism in the EU.