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WHAT ROADS ARE OPEN TO THE YOUNG?
One of the major national events of this year is the forthcoming election. It is a time for politicians to canvass votes of men and women, retirees and workers, the old and the young. Even though, when counted, these votes will have neither sex nor age, it is the young population that is undoubtedly of greater interest to politicians. It is this age group that will vote in the new millennium, so it is crucial to win their confidence today.
Again, we hear the hackneyed slogans of the Soviet past: “Youth are our future!”, “All roads are open to the young”,
“The young have the future of the nation in their hands!”.
However, what we mainly see in TV political updates is wrinkles and gray hair. It is generally believed that wisdom and experience are inherent only in old age, so such notions as “youth” and “politics” prove incompatible.
Then who represents the interests of youth in decision-making? What is the specific character of these interests? How do young people view their future? To find the answers, look at the findings of two surveys conducted in cooperation with students of the Institute of Management.
In March and September 1999, the sociological survey “Youth and Politics” was conducted to reveal political preferences of young people. The bulk of the respondents (166 persons) were high school and university students (55
percent of girls and 45 percent of boys). The other survey “The Future of Our City as Seen by the Young” involved 60 respondents including university students (81.2 percent), employed (12.5 percent) and unemployed (6.3 percent) youth.
Survey “Youth and Politics”
The survey findings showed that all the interviewed were aware that the election to the State Duma of the Russian Federation would take place on December 19, 1999.
The majority of 65.4 percent answered the question «Will you participate in the election to Russia’s State Duma on December 19, 1999» in the affirmative.
19.8 percent of the respondents would abstain and 14.7 percent were still undecided, which can be accounted for by the following:
many university and high school students were yet to be enfranchised as they were under 18, thus 9.6 percent of the respondents were not entitled to vote;
every sixth respondent thought the election would not improve the nation’s living standards;
15 percent of the interviewed youth knew nothing about the nominees;
10 percent of the respondents proved mistrustful of the nominees;
every tenth respondent questioned holding the election to Russia’s State Duma in the Republic of Tatarstan;
15 percent were not interested in politics or found the question hard to answer.
Evidently, there is a pressing need in political education of youth not only through the media, but also by introducing the relevant subjects in high school and university syllabi. The survey revealed that political awareness of young people could be raised providing that there was a will on their part. Getting aware that their future was at stake could be critical in making them more interested in the outcome of the coming election. There were lots of additional notes and remarks written in the questionnaires, such as “It’s wrong to think one vote decides nothing, if we all vote it’ll make a difference”, “We’ve got to do it now. If we don’t, whoever else will?”
The question invariably asked during TV analytical programs, “If the election to the State Duma were held tomorrow, which political party would you vote for?”, was included in our questionnaire. 31.6 percent of the respondents found it difficult to say which party they would give their preference to in the coming election.
The question “How much do you trust so-and-so?” asked in relation to a politician is taken almost ironically by many young people. Unfortunately, we in Russia have no politicians today who can enjoy absolute public trust.
We decided to find out a degree of confidence of the youth in Russia’s most prominent politicians. The results were scored on a 9-point scale (1 point – no confidence, 9 points – absolute confidence) where positive scores are those over 4.5 points.
The survey showed that the majority of the youth involved followed political developments in Russia and abroad, though occasionally.
Young people as no one else should be interested in a better future. Any person, regardless of age, should be aware of political developments both nation- and worldwide. However, most people in present-day Russia remain regretfully unengaged in politics. We wish young people today could end with their political illiteracy to feel comfortable discussing political events taking place in Russia and worldwide.
Svetlana Mashkova (Based on the surveys conducted by A.Sorokin, E.Romanov, I.Bagautdinov, and I.Ganeev)
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