In its Freedom in the World 2018 Report, the independent watchdog organization Freedom House declared Turkey’s status to be “not free.” This survey, conducted in the megacity Istanbul, aims to compare such status reports with citizens' perceptions of their rights. The survey (sample: 400 citizens) examined the political party preferences of citizens dissatisfied with the current state of their rights, who may therefore constitute the seeds of an opposition-based-on-rights discourse. This approach can potentially be generalized to other megacities in order to compare nascent opposition to new authoritarian regimes. The venue was chosen with the expectation that megacities are locations where it is more likely to encounter citizens mindful of their rights.
