Political Participation of Young People in Serbia: Activities, Values, and Capability

Abstract

Focusing on the case of Serbia, in this chapter we examine the levels of young people’s political activism, conventional and unconventional, by analyzing the factors that influence their formation. At the same time, we provide an overview of the current debates on the transformation of political activity in the twenty-first century, with special emphasis on the practices of young people in the post-socialist context. Our main research questions of the chapters are: How are the values of young people related to the types of political engagement? How does trust in institutions and political actors affect involvement in the political field? Does a sense of capability to participate in political life also lead to real involvement? The specific context of the prolonged social crisis limited economic opportunities, low institutional and social trust, as well as conflicts of different value orientations, finds a specific place in youth participation shaped by instrumental goals, clientelism, and authoritarianism. On the one hand, conventional politics, with its informal rules of the game, developed clientelism, the still traditional structure of political parties advocating mass numbers mobilizes a relatively large number of young people compared to other European countries. But this activity is only partly inspired by political and ideological goals, and the dominant strategy of young people is getting a job and social promotion through these channels. On the other hand, the semi-authoritarian regime in which young people live often leads to self-organizing and various alternative and protest politics which are grounded in the traditions of the 1990s.