Factors associated with European citizen’s political participation: from European youth’s perspectives

Abstract

The political participation of young people can undoubtedly have a positive impact on a country. Especially in the EU as a democratic country, the political participation of citizens is also very important for the EU. However, it can be seen in the previous literature that the youth population is not very enthusiastic in terms of political participation. Therefore, the main purpose of this paper is to explore the factors that influence the political participation of European youth. And the main gap of this paper is to elaborate on the mismatch between the definition of political participation and the perception of youth regarding what is political.

In this paper, I present an analytical study of the factors influencing young people's political participation using data from the Eurobarometer-Ipsos European Public Affairs, which included 18156 respondents between the ages of 16 and 30 in 27 European Union member states. According to the statistical analysis's findings, there are four main factors that affect young people's political participation in Europe: forms of political participation, political education, political interest, and tools for political participation.

This study adds to the body of knowledge on the involvement of young people in politics.

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