Predictors of Conventional, Protest, and Civic Participation among Slovenian Youth: A Test of the Civic Voluntarism Model

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to compare the predictive power of three sets of determinants in Civic Voluntarism Model (CVM) on three dimensions of citizen participation. We analysed a representative sample of Slovenian Youth 2010 study (N = 1,257, M_age = 22.5 years, 48.8 % female). Results indicated that 1) CVM explained the largest amount of variance in protest participation (25 %), followed by conventional participation (17 %), and civic participation (8 %); 2) political culture and social networks models were separately the strongest explanatory models, while resources model was the weakest; 3) political interest, female gender, postmaterialist values, more frequent church attendance and discussions of politics with parents all had a significant positive impact on two out of three citizen participation dimensions of Slovenian youth. Implications of the results are discussed in terms of the democratic theory and the future of democratic consolidation processes in post-communist countries.

Keywords:

• Citizen participation
• conventional political participation
• democratic consolidation
• democratic theory
• post-communist democracies
• protest participation
• youth

Notes

Of course, political culture variables (political interest, political efficacy) are also context- and resource-dependent.

Especially because one’s social networks refer (mostly) not to one’s own will, but primarily to one’s position within social structure and social hierarchy, that is, they can be regarded as a form of (social) capital (while it is, of course, also obvious that one’s personal agency, that is, one’s individual motives, incentives, and desires also play an important role in one’s position within social networks).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Andrej Kirbiš

Andrej Kirbiš is an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology, Faculty of Arts, University of Maribor, and a cofounding member of the Center for the Study of Post-Socialist Societies (CePSS). He has authored and coauthored several dozen scientific works on political culture, political participation, democratic consolidation, value change, and health of young people, with a particular focus on cross-national analyses and post-Yugoslav countries.

Sergej Flere

Sergej Flere is professor emeritus in the Department of Sociology, Faculty of Arts, University of Maribor, and a director of the Center for the Study of Post-Socialist Societies (CePSS). He has published extensively on diverse sets of issues, including the dissolution of Yugoslavia, sociology of religion, and Slovenian and (post)Yugoslav youth.

Darko Friš

Darko Friš is a professor and head of the Department of History, Faculty of Arts, University of Maribor. He has, among others, researched historical development of the party landscape and political space in Slovenia and the process of Slovenia’s independence.

Marina Tavčar Krajnc

Marina Tavčar Krajnc is an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology, Faculty of Arts, University of Maribor, vice-dean of the Faculty of Arts, and a member of CePSS. Her research interests include didactics of sociology, issues of gender inequality, gender role attitudes, and youth participation.

Tina Cupar

Tina Cupar is an assistant in the Department of Sociology, Faculty of Arts, University of Maribor, and a researcher at CePSS. Her main research interests are young people, with a particular focus on youth education and employment.