Young people’s participation and society

Autor	JUDr. Vladimír Švestka, PhDr. František Pelka, Mgr. Marta Ondrušková
Organisation	NIDM MŠMT
Year	1998
Research type	research report
Annotation	Annotation This report deals with the issue of the young people’s (15-26 years) participation. Participation is understood here as the right to participate on the decision-making on the local level and as the right to participate on the formation of the social policy towards young people. In the first part of the report the situation in this field is described and information on previous researches and various activities connected to this topic is given. In the second part results of researches which were carried out by IDM and which are connected to this issue are presented. Findings In one of the researches carried out by the IDM it was observed if young people perceive that the state organizations are interested in their problems. Relatively most positive evaluation got their interest in education and fight with drugs (about ¾ of respondents perceive their interest) and, on the contrary, the worst evaluation got their interest in housing issue and leisure time spending. Another question asked respondents in which fields, according to them, get young people sufficient financial support from the state. Situation in the housing is again considered to be the worst one – that the support is not sufficient stated 71% of inquired people. State’s attitude towards youth is also reflected in young people’s trust in various institutions. Most often young people trust in president (about 4/5), media (about 2/3), local authorities (47%) and government (46%). On the contrary, young people do not trust in political parties (68% of negative answers) and Chamber of Deputies (60%), low seems to be also the confidence in churches (59%) and police (55%). Inquired people were also asked to compare chances of adult people and of youth in Czech Republic to influence the decision making. Research showed that young people perceive discrimination in this field. Nearly 60% of respondents think that people can participate on the decision making, but only 23% of them think that also young people have this opportunity. Questions focused on local policy showed that young people’s interest in it is mostly low and mainly of passive character. Reasons for this lack of interest might by numerous. One of them is the fact that young people are excluded from the process of decision taking – only 1/3 of people that this does not happen. The others judge that this is caused by the fact that their participation does not suit the purposes of older people (46%), or by their fear of remarks and criticism from young people. Lack of interest in local policy among youth stated as a reason 41% of respondents. Young people were also asked if their actually showed some interest in participation in the place where they live. Nearly 60% of them did not do so. But more important is the fact that only 7% of those who tried so were not rejected, which means that 37% of inquired people have bad experience which might influence them in the future. That the adults are not very interested in young people’s suggestions confirmed also other findings. Respondents were asked if adults listen to young people’s opinions, suggestions and proposals. Most of them think that they do so only sometimes (44%), negative answers follow (37%). Only 10% of young people think that adults listen to their opinions. Respondents also criticize authorities because of the way they inform people. As insufficient is considered especially work of town councils (only 4% of inquired people think it is sufficient) and of deputies and senators. Young people are also discouraged from participation by the reluctance of authorities – for example local authorities rejected 18% of young people who came with some initiative (they were not perceived as partners or they were rejected because of lack of time or because of other reasons). According to the research the proposal to establish a deputy who would represent young people on local level has quite high support among youth (about 70%) as well as the idea to establish youth or children councils. Participation of young p
Keywords	young people´s participation, life of society
Research type	unrepeated research
Start date	1. 1. 1998
End date	31. 12. 1998
Obor	AO Sociology, demography
Note
Email	vyzkumy@nidv.cz
Availability	available in the NRVDM electronic library
Download research	1121340227.pdf
Research location	Národní institut pro další vzdělávání, Senovážné náměstí 25, Praha 1
Organisation	NIDM MŠMT
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