Political Apathy, Sophisticated Politics or Pluralization of the Students’ Political Engagement?

Studies in Croatia confirm that the political engagement of the youth is changing. Although the youth’s interest in politics and political affairs in Croatia saw an increase between 1999 and 2004, it was still weaker than it was in the period of socialism (Ilišin, 2011), while at the same time their political engagement is on a decline. Research has found that young people are more skeptical of the forms of traditional politics and are more open to expressing their political engagement through new media. This research addresses the very foundation of the opposing diagnoses as well as the thesis on the pluralization of the youth’s political engagement, based on a study conducted among the students enrolled in eight components of the University of Rijeka in 2015 (N = 635). The paper analyzes traditional forms (political party membership, elections, political orientation, trust in political institutions) and new political forms (forms of political engagement on social networks) of the students. The results are compared with the political engagement of the youth/students in European and Croatian research. The results point to the existence of hybrid politics, which includes the high readiness to vote in elections, signing paper petitions, and “liking” political initiatives on the Internet, but at the same time reveal the students’ very modest engagement in other, either traditional or new forms of political action