scholarly journals Digitalization and Gender Differences in Political Participation among Hungarian University Students

Intersections ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dániel Oross ◽  
Andrea Szabó
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
University Students ◽  
Latent Class ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Background Characteristics ◽  
Political Activities ◽  
Online Forms ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Politically Active

Similarly to with the debate in western societies, concern about the disengagement of young people in political life is present in Hungarian politics. Traditional party-based politics is less and less appealing to younger cohorts of Hungarian society. However, empirical evidence supports the claim that university students are the most politically active strata of society, and online political participation has been identified as a potential avenue for connecting young people to politics. The present paper aims to reveal whether the characteristics of those students who are active online differ significantly from the background characteristics of students who take part in offline activities. In order to describe university students’ activity in online forms of participation and assess the chronological trends thereof, the paper uses data that covers the period between 2015 and 2019 – i.e. research rounds three and four of the dataset collected by Active Youth in Hungary Research. We use latent class analysis (LCA) to assess whether individuals who participate most actively in traditional offline activities are also those who are most active in terms of online participation. The results of the research reveal that distinct groups of university students are drawn to specialize in online versus offline repertoires of political participation, indicating that online political activities are not exclusively the purview of those who are most active in traditional offline activities.

Young Immigrants’ Internet Political Participation in Germany

2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Viktoria Spaiser
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Statistical Models ◽  
Internet Use ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Political Activities ◽  
East European ◽  
Internet Users ◽  
Politically Active ◽  
Young Immigrants

This paper discusses the results of research on young immigrants’ political participation on the Internet in Germany. The research focuses on young people from Turkish and East European backgrounds. The interrelation between offline political activities and online political participation is explained and the differences between the two groups are examined. While young German Turks are particularly politically active Internet users, young German East Europeans are rather hesitant about using the Internet for political purposes. Statistical models show that young German Turks’ political Internet use is motivated by grievances, while young German East Europeans’ political Internet use is motivated by sentimental pessimism and world-weariness.

scholarly journals RURAL WOMEN EMPOWERMENT THROUGH LOCAL DEMOCRACY IN INDIA: A CASE STUDY OF GRAM PANCHAYATS IN UTTAR DINAJPUR DISTRICT OF WEST BENGAL

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (01) ◽  
pp. 1065-1073
Author(s):  
Mithun Chandra Sarkar ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Political Participation ◽  
Gender Discrimination ◽  
Rural Women ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Women Empowerment ◽  
Political Activities ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Local Decision ◽  
And Gender

The paper attempts to analyze the praxis of women empowerment and womens political participation of some Gram Panchayats in Uttar Dinajpur rural areas. In present times, the empowerment of women has become one of the most important concerns of the 21st century because of their right to participate in political processes which also impact their family and in turn the society. Many countries are attempting to increase womens political participation and leadership in civil society and now political parties want more women to join in political activities. Women around the world are still largely absent from national and local decision-making procedures. Globally about 20% of women participate in political activities, for women it is very difficult to participate in the civic and political life of their countries due to lack of support and gender discrimination. Strengthening womens rights and addressing obstacles to political participation are critical to achieving gender justice, equality, and women empowerment.

Quotas and Gender Gaps in Political Participation among Established Industrial European Democracies: Distinguishing Within- and Across-Country Effects

2017 ◽  
Vol 70 (3) ◽  
pp. 657-672 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katrine Beauregard
Keyword(s):  
Political Participation ◽  
Gender Quotas ◽  
Gender Gaps ◽  
Subsequent Increase ◽  
Political Activities ◽  
Country Effects ◽  
Women's Participation ◽  
Before And After ◽  
European Values ◽  
And Gender

This paper proposes to investigate the influence of legislative quotas on gender differences in political participation by analyzing the within- and across-country effects of quotas. Gender quotas can signal to women that their presence in politics is welcome, leading to a subsequent increase in their involvement in political activities. This change in political behavior should not be reproduced in men; thus, when gender quotas are present, the gap between men’s and women’s participation narrows. Using the European Values Survey and data from eighteen European democracies, this paper demonstrates that this indeed occurs for some political activities when gender gaps are compared before and after the introduction of quotas within countries. This result, however, is not replicated for across-country analyses. European countries without legislative gender quotas tend to have smaller gender gaps than countries with them. This result is explained by referring to the context of the adoption of gender quotas.

scholarly journals Deliberation or Self-presentation?: Young People, Politics and Social Media

2014 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 17-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tanja Storsul
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Young People ◽  
Focus Group ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Focus Group Interviews ◽  
Self Presentation ◽  
Political Activities ◽  
Political Deliberation ◽  
Group Interviews

Abstract This article presents a study of how politically engaged young people use social media for political purposes. There has been a growing optimism that social media can stimulate political participation and deliberation, especially among young people. Based on focus group interviews with Norwegian teenagers, the article argues that social media have become an important platform for young people to participate in political activities. Whether the purpose is internal meetings or external mobilization, social media provide platforms for planning, reporting and communicating political activities. At the same time, politically engaged young people are hesitant about using social media for political deliberation. They are concerned about how they present themselves, and they are reluctant to stand out as highly political. One important explanation for this is that social media integrate different forms of communication and collapse social contexts. This causes teenagers to delimit controversies and try to keep political discussions to groups with more segregated audiences.

Social Structure and Political Participation: Developmental Relationships, Part I

1969 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 361-378 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norman H. Nie ◽  
G. Bingham Powell ◽  
Kenneth Prewitt
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Social Structure ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Political Stability ◽  
Social Consequences ◽  
Political Life ◽  
General Level ◽  
Political Activities

Economic development has consequences for many aspects of social life. Some of these social consequences, in turn, have an impact on a nation's political life. Studies of social mobilization, for example, have demonstrated that economic development is associated with sharp increases in the general level of political participation. These studies report strong relationships between aggregate socio-economic measures such as per capita income, median level of education, and percentage of the population in urban areas, on one hand, and aggregate measures of political participation, such as voting turnout, on the other. Simultaneously, scholars conducting surveys of individual political participation consistently have reported that an individual's social status, education, and organizational memberships strongly affect the likelihood of his engaging in various types of political activities.In spite of the consistency of both sets of findings across many studies and although the findings appear frequently in analysis of political stability, democracy, and even strategies of political growth, we know little about the connections between social structure and political participation. With few exceptions the literature on individual participation is notable for low level generalizations (the better educated citizen talks about politics more regularly), and the absence of systematic and comprehensive theory. While the literature on the growth of national political participation has been more elaborate theoretically, the dependence on aggregate measures has made it difficult to determine empirically how these macro social changes structure individuals' life experiences in ways which alter their political behavior.

scholarly journals “I don’t like it and I think it’s useless, people discussing politics on Facebook”: Young Swedes’ understandings of social media use for political discussion

2014 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Malin Sveningsson
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Young People ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Qualitative Methods ◽  
Democratic Citizenship ◽  
Online Media ◽  
Political Discussion ◽  
Political Organizations ◽  
Political Activities ◽  
Western Democracies

Western democracies have seen a decrease in political participation, with young people singled out as the most problematic group. But young people are also the most avid users of online media. It has therefore been argued that online media could be used to evoke their interest in politics, and thus contribute to the reinvigoration of democratic citizenship. Using a mixed qualitative methods approach, this article takes a closer look at 26 young Swedes’ experiences and understandings of social media, especially Twitter and Facebook, as used for political discussions. Compared to the average Swedish 17 to 18-year-olds, the participants are relatively interested in civic and political questions. By focusing on this segment, the article mirrors the experiences of an understudied group – young people who are interested in politics but not engaged. The participants were skeptical about social media as used in relation to politics, and expressed doubts about their suitability and usefulness. Four themes were identified, where three have to do with perceived risks: for conflict, misunderstandings and deceit. The participants also expressed the idea of online political activities as being less authentic than their offline equivalents. The idea that young people want and expect something that political organizations cannot live up to is one of the most dominant discourses that characterize the discussion on youth political participation today. However, while some properties of social media fit well into what young people have been found to prefer, for the participants, negative traits seem to outweigh the positive ones, thus discouraging them from participating.

scholarly journals Youth Political Participation in Russia: Influence of Voluntary Associations

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (9S3) ◽  
pp. 13-23
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Voluntary Associations ◽  
Political Activities ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Country Factors ◽  
Monitoring Survey ◽  
Data Source ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Specific Country

Studying the reasons for youth political participation, and how young people get involved in political activities is an important issue for both developed and developing countries. Research in this area started from general tendencies and then moved to specific country factors. The purpose of this research is to determine the relationship, in Russia, between participation in voluntary associations during education and political participation during adulthood. Previously, there was no research in this field for Russia. In the research non-parametric tests for K independent samples, descriptive statistics, logistical regression, and factor analysis were applied. The main data source is the Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey. The key result is that involvement in voluntary associations during education, especially in political ones, positively affects future youth political participation. Education and income also have positive effects. Russia is generally similar to other countries, including developed, developing, and post-soviet ones. In post-soviet countries, the key interdependencies are similar to Russia, but not so clearly expressed. In Russia, employed young people vote with less probability than unemployed ones, whereas in Belarus we see the opposite.

scholarly journals Social Media and Youth Political Participation at the Time of Political Polarization: A Study on University Students in Indonesia during the 2017 Jakarta Gubernatorial Election

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
. Wahyutama
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Social Isolation ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Political Polarization ◽  
Theory Approach ◽  
Spiral Of Silence ◽  
Political Activities ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
Political Conversation

<p>Some studies theorized social media as fostering youth political participation by facilitating the development of online participatory cultures (Jenkins, 2009). Online participatory cultures provide young citizens with opportunities to discuss and gain information about political topics, create capacity for action by promoting digital skills and norms for group interaction, and facilitate recruitment into civic and political life (Kahne et al., 2013). Against the backdrop of this discourse, this research aims to investigate social media and youth political participation in Indonesia’s context.  This project’s research questions ask: How politics is experienced by Indonesian youth and how social media is used by them to engage with political activities? To answer those questions, this research conducted a survey (n=265) and interviews (n=29) with students from three universities in Jakarta. This research adopted grounded theory approach in analysing the data.  This research revealed that social media in general provides affordances for youth to engage with activities related to political conversation and social-political campaign (as indicated by the findings that social media attracts more numbers of youth participating in these two categories of activity). Thus, this research in part support propositions advocated by the thesis of online participatory cultures that social media facilitates youth political participation.  However, under the specific context of ethnic and religious-based political polarization which happened during this research, this research also revealed that the salient form of social media use by youth is in fact monitoring political conversation. This activity is driven by the sense of “kepo” (the drive to asses how others are thinking, feeling, and responding to certain political issues) and has the effect on youth’s fear of social isolation (in the form of fear of breaking relationship with others). Eventually, this activity leads youth to the act of silence (in the form of refraining political expression on social media). In this case, this research (unintentionally) confirm the theory of spiral of silence proposed by Elizabeth Noelle-Neumann (1984).  Finally, this research contributes to the academic discourse by providing a critical insight into the way social media could lead its users to the process of spiral of silence i.e. by exacerbating the fear of social isolation obtained from the activity of social surveillance (in the form of monitoring political conversation).</p>

scholarly journals Social Media and Youth Political Participation at the Time of Political Polarization: A Study on University Students in Indonesia during the 2017 Jakarta Gubernatorial Election

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
. Wahyutama
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Social Isolation ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Political Polarization ◽  
Theory Approach ◽  
Spiral Of Silence ◽  
Political Activities ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
Political Conversation

<p>Some studies theorized social media as fostering youth political participation by facilitating the development of online participatory cultures (Jenkins, 2009). Online participatory cultures provide young citizens with opportunities to discuss and gain information about political topics, create capacity for action by promoting digital skills and norms for group interaction, and facilitate recruitment into civic and political life (Kahne et al., 2013). Against the backdrop of this discourse, this research aims to investigate social media and youth political participation in Indonesia’s context.  This project’s research questions ask: How politics is experienced by Indonesian youth and how social media is used by them to engage with political activities? To answer those questions, this research conducted a survey (n=265) and interviews (n=29) with students from three universities in Jakarta. This research adopted grounded theory approach in analysing the data.  This research revealed that social media in general provides affordances for youth to engage with activities related to political conversation and social-political campaign (as indicated by the findings that social media attracts more numbers of youth participating in these two categories of activity). Thus, this research in part support propositions advocated by the thesis of online participatory cultures that social media facilitates youth political participation.  However, under the specific context of ethnic and religious-based political polarization which happened during this research, this research also revealed that the salient form of social media use by youth is in fact monitoring political conversation. This activity is driven by the sense of “kepo” (the drive to asses how others are thinking, feeling, and responding to certain political issues) and has the effect on youth’s fear of social isolation (in the form of fear of breaking relationship with others). Eventually, this activity leads youth to the act of silence (in the form of refraining political expression on social media). In this case, this research (unintentionally) confirm the theory of spiral of silence proposed by Elizabeth Noelle-Neumann (1984).  Finally, this research contributes to the academic discourse by providing a critical insight into the way social media could lead its users to the process of spiral of silence i.e. by exacerbating the fear of social isolation obtained from the activity of social surveillance (in the form of monitoring political conversation).</p>

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