Political Participation
2 articles filed under this keyword.
Youth and their participation in the political process
Jabar Qader Ahmed
Youth people are the most important basis for the development of social and political systems and heritage change in different societies, so that their influence and dominance over various areas of life appears strongly, especially with regard to lifestyle, thinking, behavior and their point of view in the way of managing the political system. young people plays a powerful role in their Participation in the Political process, such as participation and representation in the electoral process, Pressure on the political system to achieve their demands, who were always been on the forefront of political, cultural and social changes and They were part of the process of changing and rebuilding political systems , when their demands are not met and they do not feel their presence in the political sphere, they do not allow political stability and continuity, so their presence and role appear strongly in society. this research is quantitative research, and the aim of the research is to display the active participation of young people in the political process. The research community is represented by universities and institutes in Erbil, sample research study from university and institute students through data collected from a data collection questionnaire. As a result of this research, we have found that 17.4 % members in student unions and youth organizations. However, 82.6% were not members of any organization, and only 29.4% of the participants were members of political parties. With regard to their active participation in the political process, it is interesting to note that 60.7% of the respondents do not have information about single-constituency and multiple-constituency system for the elections in the Kurdistan Region.
Volume 8 · Issue 3 · September 2021The Effects of Social Media on the University Students’ Voting Behavior in General Elections in the Kurdistan Region
Karwan Ali Qadir
The main goal of this research is to know and display the extent in which social media sites and platforms affect the voting behavior of the university students in the Kurdistan region during general elections, either to participate in the election or to vote for a specific candidate or political party. It also explores how the students participate and interact with the electoral messages and information that are published on social media platforms. This research is a political communication study, which relies on the survey method utilizing questionnaire form as a tool for data collection from the participants. The questionnaire form was designed and implemented online through Google Form and was sent to the participants through Email, Messenger, Viber and Whatsup, to the university student in different universities in the Kurdistan region. As such, 344 persons of the sample have filled up the questionnaire form in one week from 10 to 16 August 2021. The results of the study were displayed in tables and were analyzed through descriptive method, in addition to the use of SPSS statistics software to find correlation between the two main variables of the study. One of the most prominent results of this study was that only a small proportion of the participants (almost 27%) are influenced by social media to change their voting behavior such as deciding to vote or no, and voting for a specific candidate or political party. Another noticeable result was that the majority of the participants with almost (50%) do not trust the promises and speeches of the candidates and political parties that are published on social media platforms.