“I know that I don\u27t know anything“: Political Competences and Political Participation among Zagreb Youth

Mladi su, kao indikator stanja društva, oduvijek bili zanimljivi istraživačima. Njihovi stavovi, vrijednosti, kompetencije, ali i ponašanja lakmus su papir kojim se mogu solidno objasniti šire društvene tendencije pojedinog društva. U članku se analizira razina političke kompetencije, kao i razina političke participacije zagrebačke mladeži. Politička kompetencija i politička participacija dvije su odrednice kvalitetnog funkcioniranja konsolidiranih demokracije te ih je važno pratiti i razvijati s ciljem djelotvornijeg demokratskog političkog sustava. Kombinirajući kvalitativne i kvantitativne istraživačke tehnike, autori u tekstu ispituju i kontekstualiziraju navedene dvije strukturalne dimenzije političkog života mladih te ih objašnjavaju na temelju uvida u recentnu znanstvenu literaturu područja. Rezultati istraživanja provedenog za potrebe ovog rada na uzorku od 411 mladih u Zagrebu, kao i pet grupnih intervjua sa srednjoškolcima i studentima, pokazuju izrazito nisku razinu prepoznavanja i razumijevanja uloge i funkcije faktora politika za mlade čime se destimulira njihova participacija u političkom životu zajednice. Osim toga, rad detaljno analizira različite vidove političke participacije te nudi objašnjenje razloge niske formalne i neformalne participacije.Researchers have always found young people interesting as an indicator of the state of a society. Attitudes, values, competences and behavior of young people are considered a sort of litmus paper that can adequately explained wider social tendencies of a given society. This paper analyzes political competencies and political participation of Zagreb youth. Political competencies and political participation are two characteristics of quality of functioning of consolidated democracies. It is therefore important to monitor and develop them in order to achieve a more effective political system. With a combination of qualitative and quantitative research techniques, the authors contextualize those two structural dimensions of the political life of young people. Hence, this paper explains political competences and political participation in reference to contemporary literature in this field. The results of a survey conducted on a sample of 411 young people in Zagreb, together with the results of five group interviews with high school and university students, demonstrate low level of understanding of roles and factors of youth policy. The authors argue that young people are discouraged to participate in community and political life because of such low understanding of politics