Motives of Youth for Political and Social Participation: an Exam-ple of Most Youth Club

Brojni radovi potvrđuju apolitičnost mladih u Hrvatskoj što se očituje u nepoznavanju osno-vnih političkih pojmova i struktura, niskom socijalnom aktivizmu, nezainteresiranosti za proučavanje politike, nezainteresiranosti za političkim angažmanom te brojnim drugim čim-benicima (Ilišin, 2017; Kovačić i Vrbat 2014). Ni društvena participacija nije lišena slabog in-teresa mladih, iako je u nešto povoljnijoj poziciji od političke participacije (Ilišin 2007; 2017). Ipak, u Hrvatskoj možemo pronaći rijetke, ali svijetle primjere visoke aktivnosti i zainteresi-ranosti mladih za spomenute participacije. Naime, različite političke stranke organiziraju stručna predavanja o aktualnim društvenim i političkim temama za svoje mlade članove i simpatizere u svrhu educiranja i poticanja na političku i društvenu aktivnost. Jedan od prim-jera, na koji ćemo se ujedno i detaljnije usmjeriti u ovom istraživanju, jest stranka Most. Most u sklopu Kluba mladih Mosta organizira Političku akademiju na čijem se repertoaru može pronaći širok spektar političkih, društvenih, etičkih tema predvođenih stručnim visokoobra-zovanim izlagačima. Klub osim Akademije, članovima nudi brojne aktivnosti poput volonti-ranja, izleta, hodočašća, druženja, pub kvizova, ali i priliku da sami pripreme određene teme za izlaganje te se tako vježbaju u argumentiranju i javnom nastupu. Ovime se otvara i glavno pitanje, odnosno osnovni cilj istraživanja koji jest ispitati motive mladih za političku i druš-tvenu participaciju. Mladi se u ovom radu definira prema statutu Mosta što podrazumijeva "osobe s navršenih 18 do navršenih 35 godina života" (Narodne novine, 2020). Specifični ci-ljevi na koje se rad usredotočuje jesu za početak diferencirati motive za političku i socijalnu participaciju iako se one u nekim segmentima neminovno preklapaju te ispitati način na koji se očituje participacija mladih u istraživanoj političkoj stranci. Teorijski okvir temelji se na postavkama Maxa Webera, preciznije na teoriji društvenog (racionalnog) djelovanja te četiri ideal tipa društvenog djelovanja. Za kontekstualizaciju hrvatskog društva najviše se konzul-tira literatura autorice Vlaste Ilišin, ali i ostalih autora poput Marka Kovačića, Ivane Vrbat, Vladimira Vujčića itd. Metodologija istraživanja je kvalitativna. Uzorkovanje je namjerno iz populacije Kluba mladih Mosta, a istraživačka metoda je polustrukturirani intervju. Rad znanstveno doprinosi nadopunjavanjem postojeće literature na ovu temu.Numerous studies confirm the apolitical attitude of young people in Croatia, which is mani-fested in ignorance of basic political terms and structures, low level of social activism, the lack of interest in politics, the lack of interest in political engagement and many other factors (Ilišin, 2016; Kovačić i Vrbat 2014). Even social participation is not deprived of the weak inte-rest of people, although it is in a slightly more favorable position than political participation (Ilišin 2007; 2017). Nevertheless, in Croatia we can find rare but bright examples of high acti-vity and interest of young people in those participations. To illustrate, different political par-ties organize expert lectures on current social and political topics for their young members and sympathizers for the purpose of educating and encouraging political and social activity. One of the examples, which we are focusing on in more detail in this research, is the party Most. Party Most, as part of the Most Youth Club, organizes political academies whose re-pertoire covers a wide range of political, social and ethical topics held by professional, highly educated presenters. In addition to the academy, the Club offers its members numerous acti-vities such as volunteering, excursions, pilgrimages, socializing, pub quizzes, but also the opportunity to prepare presentation of certain topics so they gain experience in argumentati-on and public speaking. This opens up the main question or the basic goal of research, which is to examine the young people motives for political and social participation. In this paper young people are defined according to the Statute of the party Most, which means “persons from the age of 18 to the age of 35” (Narodne novine, 2020). The specific goals on which the paper focuses are to differentiate the motives for political and social participation, even tho-ugh they collide in some segments, as well as to examine the way in which youth participati-on is manifested in the particular political party. The theoretical framework is based on Max Weber’s Social Action Theory and four ideal types of social action. For the contextualization of Croatian society, the mostly consulted literature is of author Vlasta Ilišin but also of the other authors such as Marko Kovačić, Ivana Vrbat, Vladimir Vujčić, etc. The research metho-dology is qualitative. Sampling is intentional from the population of the Most Youth Club and the research method is a semi-structured interview. The paper scientifically contributes to the topic by enriching the existing knowledges