Short Title

SCHOOLS OF DEMOCRACY?

Full Title

Schools of Democracy? Comparative analysis of local projects In Hungary encouraging cooperation in the field of political participation of young people

Brief Description

The main objective of the research is to investigate how the common European youth policy objective of designing political institutions that enable young people unleash their creativity and participate in democracy is put into practice at local level in Hungary. The research aims to capture how europeanization effected structures for young people’s active participation in Hungary in the South Great Hungarian Plain Region at regional and local level. What are the features of laws and institutions created for Hungarian young people to participate in public life? How did the projects encouraging youth participation influence decision-making processes in Hungary?

Research Period

2013. 01.01. - 2012.10.31.

Research Type

Fellowship

Research Monitoring Body

MTA-Ryoichi Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellowship Fund

Project Supervisor

Zsolt Boda

Research Manager

Daniel Oross

Researcher

Daniel Oross

Contact

Daniel Oross oross.daniel@tk.mta.hu

Support

MTA-Ryoichi Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellowship Fund

Research Summary

The research deals with one of the key concepts of democracy - political participation in local communities. From the approach of public policy the study focus on local participatory structures aiming to encourage political participation of Hungarian young people aged between 15-29 years. The concept of the research is based on the idea that young people's participation in democratic decision-making is largely determined by political institutions.
Current research has not been conducted to discover the organisational form of Hungarian youth structures. To generate data for selecting cases Regional Officies of Mobilitas, the national coordinator organisation of EU Youth Policy in Hungary will be contacted. The screening process will be done trough the document analysis of regional, county and local youth strategies and action plans. The study aims to find out the most important factors influencing supportive youth structures facilitating political participation. To detect networks of youth organisations and to understand causal relations, qualitative data needs to be generated from the most developed structures. Eight descriptive case study will be conducted in one Hungarian region. In depth interviews will be conducted in the sampled municipalities with mayors and municipal youth council leaders, the municipal youth workers and leaders of local NGOs committed for the political participation of young people. The collected data will be analysed through document analysis and qualitative content analysis.