A SPATIAL ANALYSIS OF THE GENERAL ELECTION RESULTS REALIZED IN TURKEY BETWEEN 1980-2000

In the regions where the democracies are dominant, the administrators are determined by the voters. During the realization of the elections, parameters such as voter preferences and inter-provincial spatial differences take a role in determining the votes of the parties. In this study, the effects of spatial differences on the general election results are measured by mentioning the relation of space with politics. In this context; the answers to the questions such as “Are voter preferences affected by spatial differences?” and “Are inter-provincial neighborhood relations reflected in voter preferences?” are tried to be explored. In the study, spatial weighting and neighborhood matrix calculations are made between provinces, and the degree of dependence between provinces is measured at the spatial level. Moran's I and Geary's C test statistics are used to measure the degree of spatial dependence. Accordingly, dependency levels of provinces are determined at the global and local levels. In the study, four different sub-disciplines such as election results, economic geography, political geography and spatial analysis are taken into consideration. Within the scope of the study, it is concluded that the voter preferences are affected to some extent by the spatial differences in the local and global levels