This thesis analyses the emergence and evolution of the think-tanks in Turkey. It seeks primarily to answer to whether or not it is possible to mention &lsquo / a think-tank culture&rsquo / in Turkey. After the definition, characteristics and types of the think-tank term are debated, the historical background of think-tanks all over the world is analyzed. The thesis looks at similarities and differences among the think-tanks in and outside Turkey in terms of their size and areas of specialization. It also tries to find out who are pioneering to the establishment of think-tanks, whom the think-tanks are serving, which financial resources and functions they have in Turkey.

The present study investigated self-presentational predictors of shyness among university students via a mediational causal model, in which socially-prescribed perfectionism, perceived social skills, and perceived parental attitudes were proposed to interact with fear of negative evaluation and self-esteem to predict shyness. The sample consisted of 497 undergraduate students (287 females, 210 males) selected from Middle East Technical University by stratified random sampling. Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale, Revised Cheek and Buss Shyness Scale, Socially-Prescribed Perfectionism Scale, Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, Social Skills Inventory-Short, and Parental Attitude Scale were used in data collection. Pilot studies were conducted for assessing the reliability and validity of Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale, Revised Cheek and Buss Shyness Scale, and Social Skills Inventory-Short. Path analysis was utilized to test the causal model. The results revealed that shyness was positively predicted from fear of negative evaluation and socially-prescribed perfectionism / and negatively from self-esteem and perceived social skills. Fear of negative evaluation was predicted positively from socially-prescribed perfectionism and perceived strictness/supervision from parents, and negatively from self-esteem / whereas self-esteem was predicted positively from perceived social skills, perceived parental psychological autonomy and acceptance/involvement, and negatively from socially-prescribed perfectionism. These findings suggested that fear of negative evaluation partially mediated the relationship between shyness and socially-prescribed perfectionism / between shyness and perceived parental strictness/supervision / and between shyness and self-esteem. In addition, self-esteem partially mediated the association of shyness with socially-prescribed perfectionism / with perceived social skills / with parental acceptance/involvement / and with parental psychological autonomy. Findings are discussed within the self-presentational framework of shyness.

This dissertation is an exploratory research that analyzes the representation of the state and its relationship with society in the meaning worlds of the Turkish bureaucrats. Accordingly, the research question of this dissertation has to do with political representation in the mindsets of bureaucratic actors. Regarding this question, we focused on the theory of representative bureaucracy and addressed its inadequacies in analyzing the issue of bureaucratic representation. In our view, representation is a phenomenon related to a particular mode of understanding that creates commonsense. It involves the contextual varieties of taken for granted knowledge that constitutes the basis of one&rsquo / s social world, which the theory of representative bureaucracy fails to question. In this respect, our research intended to discover how do bureaucrats order and arrange the meaning of state-society relationship in their minds. We conducted our research in the Capital Markets Board of Turkey, the Ministry of Finance, and the Turkish Military Academy. We used the methods of multidimensional scaling and hierarchical cluster analysis to reveal the latent meaning patterns in the meaning worlds of the bureaucrats. The results of our analysis pointed out two major findings. Our first finding indicated the reductionism of the theory of representative bureaucracy in understanding and interpreting the meaning worlds of the Turkish bureaucrats. Our second finding involved the significant similarities as well as the differences in the meaning worlds of the bureaucratic organizations. These variations demonstrated how the organizations of the same state might differ due to distinct organizational ideologies.

The objectives of the present study were (1) to examine the relationship between culture and value concepts, (2) to compare Post-communist Turkic students studying in Turkish universities and Turkish university students based on their value structures, and (3) to attempt to integrate Triandis&rsquo / and Schwartz&rsquo / s conceptualizations of culture. The sample of this study consisted of Turkish university students (N=292) and Post-communist Turkic students studying in Turkish universities (N=299). Individualism-Collectivism (INDCOL) Scale measuring individualism-collectivism and vertical-horizontal dimensions of culture and Portrait Values Questionnaire (PVQ) measuring the main value types and dimensions were employed to all participants together with some demographic measures. Partial correlation analysis (gender and age were controlled) revealed systematic relationships between culture and value types in expected direction. Horizontal-collectivists appeared to give priority to value of benevolence, vertical-individualists to achievement, and vertical-collectivists to power. The comparison of two samples indicated that Post-communist Turkic sample reported higher levels of embeddedness and lower levels of intellectual autonomy, affective autonomy and egalitarianism than Turkish students. The findings concerning the integration of different culture and value conceptualizations demonstrated that Post-communist Turkic sample reported higher levels of vertical-collectivism and lower levels of horizontal-individualism than Turkish sample supporting acclimation-compensation hypothesis. Findings were discussed in the light of relevant literature and characteristics of the samples, recent developments in Central Asia, and acculturation issues. The study has contributed to the existing literature on the cross-cultural validation of relationship between culture and value conceptualizations using student samples from rarely examined cultures.

This study aimed to describe the life standard in the post-Soviet context taking the Republic of Adygeya, one of the poorest districts of Post-Soviet Russia, as an example. The applicability of the European approach to the life standard (quality of life) was also in question. The survey in Adygeya showed that life standard research is applicable in the post-Soviet context. However, modifications are necessary and not all concepts are comparable to the world outside the ex-Soviet region. The descriptive chapters on the case of Adygeya include income, economic life, settlement, necessities and ownership, the failure of the systems of education and heath, democracy and citizens as well as the general evaluation of the quality of life and satisfaction.

The objective of this thesis is to examine the impact of nation building policies over the Russian minority in post-Soviet Kazakhstan. In order to do so, the thesis first examines the Soviet nationality policies in general and their practice in Kazakhstan in particular. Second, the thesis examines the impact of the post-Soviet nation building policies over the Russians in Kazakhstan by focusing on five major issues: political elites, state planning and recruitment policy, language policy and rewriting of history, issue of citizenship and the relocation of the state capital. As a result, the thesis argues that, the post-Soviet nation building policies of Kazakhstan have overall had a negative impact over the Russian minority living in the republic. It is argued that this negative impact is mostly visible in the areas employment, and social and cultural spheres. In addition, the thesis also argues that opponents of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev, both Russian and Kazakh, have largely been curbed by the Kazakh government.

In this thesis, the aim is to understand social exclusion of urban youth living in Altindag, one of the most disadvantaged districts of Ankara. In this study, social exclusion is accepted as a process of long term non-participation in the economic, civic, and social spheres which integrate the society in which an individual lives. Therefore, the definition of social exclusion centered on the notion of &lsquo / lack of integration&rsquo / is accepted as a background of the study. In this respect, social exclusion is accepted as an endpoint in a irreversible process of being placed in the margins of society. Furthermore, this thesis attempted to identify the dimensions and levels which can cause entry or exit from these processes and to understand how the multiple and cumulative disadvantage shapes experiences and feelings of young people in most disadvantaged conditions in order to be able to argue how closely do the experiences of the youth described in this study connect with popular and influential discussions of social exclusion. Also the consequences of social exclusion for young people living in Altindag are analysed. Hence, the social exclusion of youth living in Altindag is analyzed on the basis of three dimensions which are education, labour market, and social capital. Furthermore, in each dimension structural, local and individuals levels are also examined. Some major conclusions of the research are that there is not one single and uniform experience of social exclusion among young people / that a context of social exclusion does not generate just one way of getting by for young people / that exclusionary process can be experienced as a &ldquo / vicious circle&rdquo / or as a &ldquo / spiral of disadvantage&rdquo / that social exclusion has a multi-dimensional character / and that family and community support is important for not being excluded economically and socially, but it also can create to dimension of exclusion when such support systems are the only support mechanisms of the disadvantaged youth.

This thesis analyzes the IMF stabilization packages and how those packages may affect the development. In order to explain the applications of the Packages, Argentine case is discussed for the period of 1990&rsquo / s. By analyzing the theories behind the IMF Stabilization packages, it is aimed to explain the conditionalities, actions and results, as could be observed in Argentine case.

This thesis takes up the mantle of studying the Constitutional Treaty in the context of European Integration. This work examines how constitutionalization affected the process of European integration in relation to the democratic legitimacy of the European Union. Albert O. Hirschman&#039 / s Exit, Voice and Loyalty paradigm is used to assess and define the process of constitutionalization in the context of the supranational and intergovernmental tendencies of the European construct which birthed the democratic deficit in its foundational period. Special focus is allotted to the role of the European elites in drafting the Constitutional Treaty which was the culmination of their attempts to compensate for the foundational lack of democratic legitimacy. In order to make this assessment this thesis delineates the history of European integration. Furthermore, this work examines the European constitutional drive and evaluates the implications of the failed ratification process in correlation to the aforementioned issues. In conclusion this thesis maintains that the future feasibility of the constitutional project is directly related to the degree of democratic legitimacy achieved by the whole of the European Union.

This study is an attempt to analyse the newspaper supplements published by the Turkish printed press. An analysis of the qualitative and quantitative characteristics of the contents of the newspaper supplements selected due to the circulation numbers follows a brief history of the newspaper supplements. The study ends with the interviews made with the editor-in-chiefs of the weekend supplements. What results from these two analyses on different levels is that even though the basic aim of the daily newspaper supplements, mainly the weekend supplements is to increase the advertising revenues of the publishing companies, the content presented to the readers through these supplements also plays an important role in the social-ideological reproduction as the symbol of a specific life style. Therefore, this study also shows that critical political-economic approaches have to be completed with cultural analyses in the media studies.