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A Study of Youth Political Participation in Poland and Romania View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by UCL Discovery A Study of Youth Political Participation in Poland and Romania Fiona Mary Robertson School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES) University College London (UCL) Thesis to be submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science 2009 1 DECLARATION I confirm that the work presented in this thesis is my own. Where information has been derived from other sources, I confirm that this has been indicated in the thesis. All translations are my own. Fiona Robertson 2 ABSTRACT Although perceived changes in political participation patterns amongst young people in recent years have attracted much academic research in established democracies this remains an understudied area in the newer post-communist democracies of Central and Eastern Europe. In established democracies, researchers have shown that although many young people are increasingly shunning traditional forms of political involvement, such as voting and political party membership, instead they are turning to more direct methods such as volunteering and protest. Despite evidence that young people in newer democracies may also have low levels of electoral participation and party membership, there is little understanding of whether this is due to communist legacies of forced participation, economic and social hardship or indeed reflects trends in established democracies. As active political participation plays a vital role in the improvement of the quality of democracy, this represents an important gap in our knowledge. The aim of this thesis is to start to address this by analysing the logics behind youth political participation in two contrasting newer democracies, Poland and Romania. To do this, I employ a multi-method comparative approach which combines qualitative findings of fieldwork and quantitative data on electoral turnout. The thesis assesses electoral participation, party membership and involvement in informal forms of participation such as volunteering and protest. It finds that many young people in post- communist democracies choose to opt out of traditional forms of political participation because, as in established democracies, they feel alienated from formal political agents. However, this exit from formal methods of participation is not generally coupled with active participation in informal forms of involvement. The thesis concludes that despite sharing some important characteristics with young people in established democracies, legacies of communism and the rapid nature of post-communist political and socioeconomic transformation continue to negatively influence youth political participation in Poland and Romania. 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Tables..............................................................................................................8 List of Figures.............................................................................................................9 Acknowledgements...................................................................................................10 CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION...............................................................11 1.1 Youth Political Participation in Context..............................................................11 1.1a Chapter Outline........................................................................................................12 1.2 What is Political Participation?...........................................................................13 1.3 Why Does Political Participation Matter?..........................................................16 1.3a Political Participation and Democratic Theory........................................................17 1.3b Political Participation and Democratisation.............................................................21 1.4 Youth Political Participation- A Special Case?..................................................23 1.4a Explanations for Patterns of Youth Political (Dis)engagement in Established Democracies............................................................................................................. 24 1.4b Don’t Care or Don’t Like? Apathy Versus Alienation ........................................27 1.4c Explaining Youth Political (Dis)engagement in Newer Democracies ...................28 1.5 Conclusions..........................................................................................................38 CHAPTER TWO A MULTI-METHOD COMPARATIVE APPROACH......39 2.1 Introduction..........................................................................................................39 2.2 The Comparative Approach.................................................................................39 2.2a Why a Paired Country Comparison?........................................................................39 2.2b Why Poland and Romania?......................................................................................40 2.2c Communist Experience.............................................................................................41 2.2d Post-Communist Political Opportunity Structures and Resources...........................47 2.2e Sub-National Control Comparisons..........................................................................58 2.3 A Multi-Method Analysis....................................................................................67 2.3a The Strengths of a Multi-Method Approach............................................................67 2.3b Research Design.......................................................................................................69 2.4 Conclusions..........................................................................................................73 4 CHAPTER THREE ELECTORAL PARTICIPATION............................75 3.1 Introduction.....................................................................................................75 3.2 The Electoral Context.....................................................................................78 3.2a Actual Turnout in Poland and Romania...............................................................78 3.2b Turnout by Locality in Poland and Romania.......................................................79 3.2c Voting by Age Group............................................................................................81 3.3 Building a Model for Youth Electoral Participation and Non-Participation in Poland and Romania........................................................................................ 85 3.3a Socioeconomic Factors..........................................................................................85 3.3b Political Interest and Trust – Alienation and/or Apathy?......................................88 3.3c Existing Social and Political Involvement.............................................................103 3.4 Testing the Model of Youth Electoral Participation in Poland and Romania..110 3.4a Comparison between Poland and Romania..........................................................112 3.4b Comparison of Age Groups in Poland................................................................ .115 3.4c Comparison of Age Groups in Romania...............................................................117 3.5 Conclusions......................................................................................................118 CHAPTER FOUR YOUTH POLITICAL PARTY MEMBERSHIP...121 4.1 Introduction.......................................................................................................121 4.1a Contrasting Party Systems and Hypotheses............................................................123 4.2 Overview of Party Developments in Poland and Romania...............................125 4.2a The Polish Political Context...................................................................................125 4.2b The Romanian Political Context.............................................................................128 4.3 Youth Party Membership in Poland and Romania............................................132 4.3a How Many Young Party Members in Poland and Romania?................................132 4.3b Youth Wings in Poland and Romania – Structure and Membership.....................136 4.3c Sub-National Representation of Youth Wings......................................................143 4.4 Who are Young Party Members and What Do they Do?..................................146 4.4a Educational Resources............................................................................................146 4.4b Access to Political Networks through Family........................................................149 4.4c What do Members do?............................................................................................151 5 4.5 Motivations and Influence of Young Party Members........................................153 4.5a Youth Wings as a Recruitment Channel and Training Ground for Party Elites......154 4.5b Power and Influence of Youth in Parties.................................................................157 4.5c Opportunities to Access Social and Other Incentives..............................................165 4.5d Ideological/Policy-Seeking Opportunities...............................................................169 4.5e The Radical Nationalist Exception...........................................................................173
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