Abstract. Introduction

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1 Reasons behind changes in youth participation in European societies: the power of institutions or the power of new generations? Daniel Oross Corvinus University of Budapest Workshop: Citizenship, Diversity, Participation and Education in Times of Change ECPR Joint Sessions, , Warsaw Abstract The paper aims to contribute to citizenship studies, by measuring the distance between the level of participation of young people and adults within the European societies. To explore the sources of active participation among young people, it is important to see more clearly how big is the gap between young people and adults and what are the most striking aspects of the difference? How do contextual factors (political structures, processes and debates) influence young people s political participation? Beyond showing the European trends the paper focuses on two different cases based on clear differences on participatory incentives of political institutions towards citizens. The case of Switzerland is interesting from this aspect because arenas for youth involvement in political life are numerous. As a contrast Hungary, a new EU member state is selected where civic participation is low even as compared to other post-communist countries. Studying most dissimilar cases helps to reveal whether differences in the opportunity structures in the two countries conclude in different youth participation patterns and youth-adult citizenship patterns or just the contrary despite the structural differences the youth-adult distances stick. The analysis brings evidence to the differences in political participation and detects different reasons (e.g. institutional reasons, value patterns, demographic variables as gender or educational background, etc.) behind them. In order to detect these differences and to elaborate the comparative perspective on youth participation in conventional and non-conventional forms and to control for longitudinal variables concerning political interest, trust, electoral and other forms of participation, party allegiance, the paper analyses the six datasets ( ) of European Social Survey. The paper may give feedback to citizenship studies to discover possible barriers that stand in the way of youth participation. Introduction Young people 1 are often presented as the apolitical harbingers of an incipient crisis of democracy. Sometimes, on the other hand, they are heralded as innovators of politics, as creators of new forms of participation. While in the past decades there has been a clear decrease in traditional forms of political participation (voting, participation in political organizations, connection to political institutions) in Western Europe, other indicators show an increase in issuedriven civic participation (DALTON 2008; INGLEHART 1997; NORRIS 2002; KLINGEMANN FUCHS 1995; PATTIE ET AL. 2004; KRIESI 2008). In other words: voting, campaigning, and participation 1 Following the categorization of Eurostat the paper defines young people as persons aged between years. 1

2 in political parties may have become unpopular, but participation in protests and citizen lobby groups have clearly become more popular 2. While some researchers have interpreted these trends as reflecting growing skepticism and apathy (HENN WEINSTEIN WRING 2002) others have called attentions to the danger inherent in formulating oversimplified claims such as the youth have become disillusioned with politics (ZUKIN ET AL. 2006, ). It may well be the case that the upcoming generations are simply interested in inventing novel forms of political participation (PHELPS 2004). If we are to understand these new types of youth engagement it would be logical to first understand the extent to which young people from previous generations have been involved in informal political activity and whether as they have aged they have shed these types of participation in place of more formal activity such as voting. (PHELPS, 2012:294) Is there a generational cleavage or it is the power of institutions that matter? If it is the generations, then differences among young people and adults concerning political participation are more enduring type that can affect attitudinal outlook permanently. If it is the socialization that matters, then more emphasis should be put on the role of institutions and agents of socialization responsible for the mobilization of young people. As for reasons behind the changing trend of political participation Hooghe-Marien (2012:144) by using the full ESS (2006) sample found that while citizens with high levels of political trust are more likely to engage in institutionalized forms of political participation, political trust is negatively associated with participation in non-institutionalized forms. Authors found the same patterns in a large majority of cases. However the relations did prove to be most meaningful in the more established democracies, while they were more volatile in some of the more recent 2 The different attempts at conceptualization have engendered an emerging methodological consensus according to which research focusing on explaining political participation should seek to identify different forms of participation and group them into clusters. Based on former research results (see OROSS-SZABÓ, 2013) the paper differentiates three participation categories. Traditional forms of political participation means participation at elections and participation in political organizations (political parties, unions), as well forms of participation related to these organizations (such as campaigning, participation at meetings, wearing the symbols of these organizations, etc.). Collective or direct forms of political participation are those that require personal involvement but do not require long-term commitment on behalf of the actor (e.g. direct forms of protest such as sit-ins, blockades, expressive and symbolic acts). Direct forms of political participation require few resources, come with low risk and require low levels of commitment include the signing of statements, petitions and initiatives. New or virtual forms of political participation typically requires low levels of commitment and few resources. With the help of the internet it has become possible to take part in both traditional and collective forms of political participation, for example, through blogging, posting, and other forms of social media use but this third is not analysed in this paper due to lack of data within the ESS questionnaire. 2

3 Hungary democracies in Central and Eastern Europe. In order to investigate the reasons behind the volatility of patterns the present paper contributes to the better understanding regional differences in forms of political participation in Europe by presenting two most different cases concerning political participation and youth s political representation, Switzerland and Hungary. The relations under investigation are inherently complex. Only comparative analysis can protect us from false generalizations. (HALLIN-MANCINI, 2004:2) The aim of the paper is to gain a deeper understanding of the context dependency and conceptual meaning of youth participation by studying two most dissimilar cases (Switzerland and Hungary) among the European countries surveyed by the European Social Survey. After presenting five hypotheses, the paper presents the two cases from the aspect of different perspectives of young people`s political participation in details since the question of generations seems to be quite nation specific. The paper defines politically specific generations both in Hungary and in Switzerland to see the extent how young people are different from previous generations. At the level of analysis the paper first brings empirical evidence to answer how generations matter within the two cases. Then it compares participatory patterns of the groups of people under 29 years and those which are over it. Finally the paper considers how national contexts such as institutional settings, cultural traditions and historic background impact political participation of young people at systemic and individual level. Figure 1 Traditional and direct participation in Switzerland and Hungary: different aspects of comparison Switzerland Swiss generations: , Integration of the opposition, General strike 1918; , Breakup, women`s right to vote; , Polarization, no to EU accession; 2007-today, new middle, Fukushima Hungarian generations: 1949*: presocialist generation; : generation of the long-fifties; : generation of the Kádár**-regime; : generation of the crisis of the Kádár regime; : generation of the crisis of the regime transformation; from 1996 to now days: the generation of post-socialism. Adults in Switzerland (30+) Adults in Hungary (30+) Young people in Switzerland (15-29) Young people in Hungary (15-29) 3

4 The power of generations Current debate about young people s participation in contemporary European democracies has moved to political-science nature implications that flow from cultural change and differentiation for democracy, institutions and youth participation (FORBRIG, 2005:8). Decreasing levels of youth participation in elections, political parties and traditional social organizations are seen to provide ample evidence of a dramatic decline in the political involvement of younger generations. In his systematic review of the literature about electoral turnout among British young people, Phelps claims that there are very few recent studies which seek to understand youth politics within the framework of long-term social and political change. Phelps claims that whether recent generations of young people are different in their political participation from their counterparts in earlier generations has seldom been adequately addressed. According to the author young people seem apathetic when it comes to conventional politics. Disinterested in politics and politicians as traditionally conceived and disengaged from the political process despite there being more opportunities to participate now than there ever has been. Instead they have opted to become involved in different types of political activity. What is missing is what lies between the two. The why. (PHELPS, 2012: ). The present paper aims to investigate this why question through the analysis of young people living in two different European countries. Some authors argue that young people, or freedom s children, now live with a freedom that was entirely unknown to earlier generations (BECK, 2001:158). Given this, there is a claim that any framework used to understand young people s participation needs to be entirely reshaped and reconceptualized, starting from today s generation. Older understandings built through comparisons with previous generations, as in a disengaged engaged binary, are necessarily going to be inadequate (FARTHING, 2010:188). In this approach young people`s participation is theorized as radically unpolitical. The significant point for generational theorists is to not assume that divisions and inequalities are automatically and always the same from one generation to the next; this is and must be an empirical question (WOODMAN, 2013, 1.3). The paper follows Mannheim s concept of generational units. These are defined as different social groups within a generation who work up the material of their common experiences in different specific ways (MANNHEIM, 1952: 304). 4

5 The paper uses the term politically specific generation. Generations are defined independently from the question if those people who are put into different categories identify themselves as members of that given generation or not. Those people are enrolled into a politically specific generation who are characterised by the same political behavior, attitudes and specific knowledge according to empirical results. The following hypothesis is raised following historical events that might be present in the memory of the individuals. Hypothesis 1: The paper supposes that differences in young people`s participation are not based on generational differences within the two countries. Instead different levels of political interest and different patterns of political participation stem from differences in processes of political socialization at national level. The power of institutions: This section of the paper goes beyond the narrow view of outcomes and inputs to the political socialization process. Instead it aims to answer the question how formal and informal institutions contribute to political participation during late childhood and adolescence. The political opportunity structure paradigm in social movement research states that political opportunities shaped by access to the political system or alliance and conflict structures influence the choice of protest strategies and the impact of social movements on their environment. (KITSCHELT, 1985:58). Drawing from this paradigm, and regarding findings of Stolle-Hooghe (2005:44) on young people`s participation the present paper supposes that if young people participate less intensively, this is not just a matter of less interest, but might also be a result of differences in their political opportunity structures. Political opportunity structures, the access to the political system have also implications for the role of citizenship education: If policy makers and politicians are really concerned about young people s democratic citizenship, they should pay attention to and, even more importantly, invest in the actual conditions under which young people can be citizens and can learn what it means to be a citizen. ( ) If learning democracy is situated in the lives of young people, then citizenship education should also facilitate a critical examination of the actual conditions of young people s citizenship, even it leads them to the conclusion that their own citizenship is limited and restricted. Such an approach would provide the basis for a much deeper 5

6 understanding of and engagement with democratic citizenship than what lessons in citizenship might be able to achieve. (BIESTA, 2011:16) The concern for youth participation in formal structures is not only derived from the distress of legitimating the political system and securing the status quo. It is, in contradiction to the former, also rooted in an attempt to revive the public space as a place of open debate, exchange, cooperation and a common effort to create society. (GAISER-DE RIJKE-SPANNRING, 2010:443). Since the aim of the paper is to compare youth participation in different political and cultural contexts, it uses a universal base model that identifies relevant factors, places them on different levels, and allows for systematic comparison level by level (ESSER DE VREESE, 2007:1198). Therefore the hypotheses of the paper are formulated on both systemic and individual level. Systemic Level On the systemic level, we are first concerned with historical and cultural traditions in different world regions. Comparing two most different cases we assume that it is the different social context of socialization that matters, instead of generational differences it is the different role of institutions and agents of socialization within the process of the mobilization of young people that determines different participatory patterns within the two selected countries. Based on the differences on the access to the political system and the available mobilization channels the paper assumes that the difference between young people`s and adults` participation will be smaller in Switzerland where there are mobilization channels for young people to take part in political life than in Hungary where the lack of these opportunities might widen the GAP between young people and adults. Hypothesis 2: The GAP between adults and young people in electoral participation will be always smaller in Switzerland than in Hungary. Comparing young people living in the two different countries, the paper also assumes that in Switzerland where there are mobilization channels for young people to take part in political life than in Hungary, political participation of young people will be higher both in traditional and direct forms of participation. Hypothesis 3: Traditional political participation of young Swiss citizens will be higher than that of Hungarian young people. 6

7 Hypothesis 4: Direct participation of young People in Switzerland will be higher than of Hungarian young people`s direct participation. Individual Level The previously discussed systemic and institutional factors help explain differences in turnout across various societies but a set of individual factors is important in explaining who participates within particular societies. Political science begins to explore the link between personal happiness and political participation in recent years (DOLAN-POWVDTHAVEE-METCALFE 2008; PATKÓS-VAY-FARKAS 2012). The authors demonstrate on ESS data that voting for the governing party in parliamentary elections can influence individuals' subjective well-being even years after the election. The paper supposes that the relationship also holds from the other way round, a sense of happiness influences the relationship to politics and participation. Next to the individual level of trust and happiness the third set of variables shows the sociability of the respondents, the extent to which a person is embedded in society. The more closed a person's social connections 3 are, the lonelier a respondent is, the less interest the person has in political issues. The paper assumes that national differences are relevant. Sociological analysis on Hungary (Keller, 2009) highlight that Hungarians are not only the most unhappy nation in Europe, but are the loneliest and also have the tightest network of relationships. This holds not only to the adult population but also to the Hungarian youth (Szabo 2013). Based on these factors it is assumed that the disposition of social contact among Hungarian negatively affects political interest and participation. Instead in Switzerland a strong positive relationship is assumed. In Hungary more and more sociological and political science study shows that there is a clear positive correlation between the religiousness and political participation (ROSTA, 2003). Therefore it is assumed that people socialized in religious communities have more social capital, are more involved in participatory activities and have higher level of sociability than the average. Hypothesis 5: Young people with higher level of satisfaction and more social contacts are more willing to participate in both countries. The Swiss perspective In Switzerland socialization begins with family and continues through community (schooling, religion, service). The interest in children is strong at the commune level. Each canton is 3 At the level of analysis, the cumulated variable that measures social connections consists of the responses to the following two questions of the ESS questionnaire: How often socially meet with friends, relatives or colleagues? (SCLMEET variable); Take part in social activities compared to others of same age? (SCLACT variable) 7

8 responsible for its educational program and, until recently, has seen considerable diversity in educational philosophy therefore the role and content of civic education differs from canton to canton. By international standards, the general conditions are very favourable for young people growing up in Switzerland. 4 The actions focus on the three core elements of child and youth policy, namely protection, support and participation, which are derived from the principles of international and constitutional law. 5 As a policy of participation and co-management, child and youth policy relates to the understanding that children and youth are (legal) subjects in their own right and a resource with their own creative ideas and attempted solutions to social and political problems. It promotes individual and collective participation and it is oriented to appropriate opportunities for children and youth of various age groups. 6 The activities of the state at all levels are complemented by voluntary activities of non-governmental organizations and private initiatives. However the exact form and content of the incentives for increasing participation of young people differs from canton to canton or even municipality to municipality that creates obstacles to any policy analysis aiming to measure of the efficiency of these incentives. In order to influence the political process, young Swiss men and women use a variety of different forms of participation. These include some of the institutional area of policy instruments. Numerous political activities take place, however, outside the institutional framework. These are often characterized by new forms of political participation and have six characteristics: young adults prefer topic-specific, short-term, informal and individual forms of participation that fit their lifestyle and therefore can be associated with leisure activities to some extent. Young Swiss respondents are less likely to go to the polls and the voter turnout in this age group is lower than in other western European countries. There is a significant difference in voting turnout since that is in relation to other forms of participation less important for young Swiss. Numerous other instruments of direct democracy are available in Switzerland. However, because most of these instruments are a Swiss peculiarity, they are not included in the international comparisons. Differences between young Swiss men and women on the one hand and their In 1997, Switzerland ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child of 28 November 1989 (UN Convention on Children's Rights). In 2000, the revised Federal Constitution closed gaps and remedied deficiencies. From a child and youth policy perspective, Articles 11, 41 and 67 of the Federal Constitution are of particular significance 6 The Federal Council Ordinance on Measures for the Protection of Children and Youth and the Strengthening of Children's Rights of 11 June 2010 forms the legal basis for carrying out programs in the area of child and youth protection. 8

9 European peers on the other hand could also indicate that young adults in Switzerland against the forms of participation that require a greater commitment, are more positive. Instruments of direct democracy not only promote related forms of participation, but apparently cause a snowballing effect. When young people learn that they can make a difference through their political commitment, on the basis of this experience they may be more willing to make a greater effort, be it through a time-demanding commitment or by studying more about political issues. (ROTHENBÜHLER, M. - EHRLER,F. KISSAU, K., 2012:43-43). Although the problem of political generations is not much reflected in Switzerland 7, some authors claim that political conflicts of the Swiss political system created different political generations. Based on Claude Longchamp`s recent results (LONGCHAMP, 2013) the paper distinguishes four politically specific generations in Switzerland. 8 The Hungarian perspective Hungary is characterized by weak politicization among parents within the family, who do not pass on their political interest to their offspring (SZABÓ I. 2000) and a low organizational tradition. Local, grass roots youth organizations are weak and there is a lack of representative structures of young people. Most local initiatives for the involvement of young people are ad hoc decisions from adult decision makers (OROSS, 2013: ). There is still a lack of understanding children s rights and real participation among political decision makers, most of whom have been socialized by the former communist model. There is no law that provides for the opportunities of children and young people to participate in social and political life. Youth policy is characterized by fragmentation. Policy tools, youth services and institutions do not support the socialization and involvement of young people into society at local, regional, national and European level (WOOTSCH, 2010). All previous Hungarian and international comparative research findings substantiate the thesis that the political interest of young Hungarians is very low and decreasing (SZABÓ A. KERN 2011; SZABÓ A. OROSS 2012). Dealing with the mechanisms of institutional politics is not 7 It is not the political or hisorical aspect that is emphasized by the Swiss litarature on generations. Instead the role of generations is highlighted from processes of the welfare state and welfare distribution between ages and / or birth cohorts, especially in retirement (intergenerational contract). (HÖPFLINGER, F., 1999) , Integration of the opposition, General strike 1918; , Breakup, women`s right to vote; , Polarization, no to EU accession; 2007-today, new middle, Fukushima. 9

10 popular, and out of the different forms of political participation direct democratic participation (demonstrations, flashmobs and petitions) and issue politics are the most preferred activities by the Hungarian youth. The unwillingness of young people to participate in formal organizations creates a specific barrier to the development of youth organizations, with most young Hungarians preferring individualized lifestyles and escape into privacy. As for the historical background of the country the last decades of Hungary could be called a history of interruption (WOOTSCH, 2010:105). Although at the beginning of the 20th century Hungary s youth organizations and those of most countries in Europe had very similar landscapes, during the century the country had experienced 9 regime changes that had negative effect on the civil society and civic participation. Similar to Germany, Hungary had to face serious social and political changes in its history which have made communication between those who were born before and after these interruptions very difficult. It is not accidental that the most important theoretical work on generations was written in Germany by a Hungarian author, Karl Mannheim. (KISS SZABÓ, 2013:105) and Hungarian political science reflects on the problem of political generations. Following the recent work of the authors Robert Valuch (2013:122) the paper defines 6 generations in Hungary. 9 Data and methods The empirical investigation demands particular type of data. For the aims of the research the ideal type of data is longitudinal, where the same people are contacted first when they are younger and then when they are older. Such data are rare. However to some degree they can be substituted if the same questions in the same form are repeated in succeeding empirical data collections and if they cover a sufficiently long time horizons over which the examination of the changes over time can be examined. (ROBERT-VALUCH, 2013:126) 10 The comparison is made by examining the 9 The authors mention the following generations: 1949*: pre-socialist generation; : generation of the long-fifties; : generation of the Kádár**-regime; : generation of the crisis of the Kádár regime; : generation of the crisis of the regime transformation; from 1996 to now days: the generation of postsocialism. *In 1949 the communist took the power by coup in Hungary. ** Kádár János was the general secretary of the state party (MSZMP). In our analysis, we have merged the crisis generation of the Kádár regime and the generation of the crisis of the regime transformation into one period, and added another generation that was socialized after The paper writes about the impact of the explanatory variables on the dependent variables and it aims to uncover connections and relations between them. This entails terminological causal explanations, but being based on a crosssectional investigation the paper cannot reveal causal relationships. 10

11 responses of young adults in a general population survey, the European Social Survey, that offers a reliable measurement of civic attitudes and behaviors for various European societies. The European Social Survey is a major comparative survey, conducted in 20 countries with approximately 42,000 respondents. The ESS is supported by the European Science Foundation and adheres to rigorous methodological norms. As such, it can be considered the most reliable measurement of political attitudes available for European young people and adults. The paper analyses the six datasets ( ) of European Social Survey 11. When selecting the dependent and independent variables the main criteria was that they were all investigated during the ESS surveys between 2002 and This way some kind of longitudinal effect can be examined, so the date of the "investigation" has also been included within the analysis. Dependent variables These variables indicate the relationship of the respondents to their social context in both countries and show the fundamental differences concerning their relationship to the political system. The first dependent variable is 'Interest in politics', which is probably the most adequate variable to indicate this diversity. Originally the variable contained 4 values, but these values were recoded into two values: interested (very interested, interested) and not interested (not at all interested, somewhat interested). The second dependent variable is a so-called traditional participation index, which is a computed variable. It consists of the following elements: Worked in political party or action group last 12 months; Worked in another organization or association last 12 months; Worn or displayed campaign badge/sticker last 12 months, Voted in last election. Before starting the analysis an index was created, each variable received a value between 0 and 1. The value was zero, if the respondent did not participate in that activity. Obviously, one means that the respondent had some involvement The 6 datasets contain a total of Swiss and 9820 Hungarian respondents. 12 It is important to mention that in the case of young people under the age of 18 the variable `voted in the last election` cannot be involved since both in Hungary and Switzerland people under the age of 18 are not allowed to participate in the elections. 11

12 The third dependent variable is direct democratic or protest activity, which can have a maximum of two values. It shows if the respondent was active in the following forms of direct democratic participation. It consists of the following elements: Contacted politician or government official last 12 months; Signed petition last 12 months; Taken part in lawful public demonstration last 12 months; Boycotted certain products last 12 months. Independent variables The explanatory variables were distinguished at two levels: variables at institutional or systemic level and variables at individual level. Variables at individual level Age is the basic variable in each case where respondents over 15 are included. At first analysis is done without any changes. In this case, the basic effect of age on participation is under investigation. At the second step a more sophisticated variable is computed based on a generational classification. It is assumed that there is a significant correlation between age, political interest and participation in various dimensions. Variables: age. Figure 2a Generations and (political) socialization of young people (at the age of 16) in Hungary Politically specific generations (periods) Socializational cohort (year of birth 16 year) Before 1949 (Horthy period, 2 nd world war ) Born until (period of the long fifties) Born between (generation of the Kádár-regime) Born between (generation of the crisis of the Kàdàr regime) Born between (generation of the crisis of the regime transformation) Born between (generation of post-socialism) Born since 1986 Figure 2b Generations and (political) socialization of young people (at the age of 16) in Switzerland Politically specific generations (periods) Socializational cohort (year of birth 16 year) , Integration of the opposition, General strike Born until ,, Breakup, women`s right to vote , Polarisation, EU-No today, New middle? Fukushima Born since

13 Variables on attitudes towards the political system Another group of individual-level variables are citizenship-related variables. It is assumed that there is a significant difference among respondents of the two countries in relation to the national identities. In Hungary the traditional nation-state concept of "one nation, one country is still valid, while in Switzerland is the ideal-type of a multi-ethnic host country. It is assumed that this difference also appears in relation to politics based on the assumption that the opinion of Hungarian respondents is homogeneous, while it is differentiated in Switzerland on the basis of responses concerning nationality, place of birth and minority. Variables: nationality, place of birth, ethnic minority. The level of trust may affect different dimensions of political interest and participation. In a closed minded, mistrustful country attitudes (either at interpersonal or at institutional level) towards the politics might be negative, while in an open-minded, more trustful country politics might have a more positive vision among people. It is assumed that in Hungary there exists a strong negative relationship between the dependent and independent variables, while the reverse may hold true for Switzerland. Variables (social level): 1. index of trust (in country's parliament; in politicians, in political parties; in the European Parliament; in the United Nations, in the legal system; in the police; 2. political attitude index (Satisfaction with the government, How satisfied with the way democracy works in country, How satisfied with the national government). Variables (individual level): individual trust-index (Most people can be trusted or you can't be too careful, Most people try to take advantage of you, or try to be fair). Variables measuring individual satisfaction: How happy are you? How satisfied with life as a whole? Variables measuring religiousness: How religious are you? Methodology During the analysis, binary logistic regression is used separately for Hungarian and Swiss respondents. As first step of the binary logistic model-building includes age into the model, then the above-indicated generational division is used for Hungary and Switzerland. 13

14 Results The power of generations Hypothesis 1: The differences in young people`s participation are not based on generational differences within the two countries. Rather different processes of political socialization explain different levels of political interest and different patterns of political participations in the two countries. Table 1a and 1b about here Table 1a and 1b show the results of three binary logistic regression models concerning interest in politics in Hungary and in Switzerland. 13 The results of the models refer rather to the similarities than to the differences between the two countries: 1. Age has influence in all models in both countries on the interest in politics, but the direction and extent of its influence is differs. Within the first model age has a significant effect but it is not one of the most important variables neither in Hungary nor in Switzerland. However in the second model the difference between young and adults is the most important valuable in Hungary and the second most important in Switzerland. Therefore it is not the age of the respondent as such that has the most influence on the interest in politics but rather the belonging to the category of adults or youngs. 2. Results do not mirror the existence of generational effects since the third model did not prove it neither in Hungary nor in Switzerland. Out of the five politically specified generations two had significant effect: those respondents who got socialized during the long fifties are much more interested in politics than any other generations, while the youngest respondents, socialized after the regime transformation are little interested in politics. However for the other three Hungarian generations no significant effect could be detected. In Switzerland the effect is significant only for the oldest generation that was socialized between They are the most interested in politics. For the other two generation there is a negative correlation but is it not significant. 13 Within the first model age is a continuous variable, while within the second model it is binary variable - the value is 1 when the respondent is under 30 years (young) and 0 if the respondent is over 30 years (adult). The third model contains age in generational division. ESS data allowed to measure the differences of 5 Hungarian and 3 Swiss politically specified generations (for the definition of generations see Table 1a and 1b). 14

15 3. It is the socio-cultural background that influences political interest the most and this holds for both countries. The finding that most interested respondents are university graduates underline the importance of education and it proves that democracy can be learned and interest in politics can be stimulated by the formation of democratic citizens. These results highlight the important role of formal education on attitudes toward active citizenship and participation. 4. Social gender also proved to be significant in both countries. Next to the level of education this variable was among the three most significant in all models. It had great impact on political interest, since males turned out to be more interested in both countries. 5. The assumption of the importance of citizenship-related variables (citizen, birthplace, ethnic minority) did not hold within the analysis. Although there are clear differences between the two countries but these are not fundamental. In Hungary none of these variables had significant effect on political interest. In Switzerland citizenship had significant effect 14. However belonging to ethnic minority was not significant in any of the models while birthplace turned out to be significant only in the second model. Therefore it is hard to find any evidence to the assumption that the opinion of Hungarian respondents is homogeneous, while it is differentiated in Switzerland on the basis of responses concerning nationality, place of birth and minority. 6. It is worth to highlight the importance of social integration. Sociability of the respondents influences interest in politics in all models in Hungary and in the first model in Switzerland. Our results show that better integrated people are more concerned by political affairs. To sum up, the analysis did not bring evidence that supports the claim that any framework used to understand young people s participation needs to be entirely reshaped and reconceptualized, starting from today s generation. Although concerning their attitudes toward political participation some politically specified generations differed from others and although belonging to the youngest generations seemed to have minor negative effect on respondents interest in politics there isn`t enough evidence that supports Beck`s and Farthing`s theory or at least 14 Swiss nationality is not automatically given even if somebody is born Switzerland, therefore citizenship is a very important factor since for this reason there are even third generation migrants is Switzerland. 15

16 comparisons with previous generations do not support the theory that young people s participation needs to be entirely reshaped, starting from today s generation. According to this analysis the above mentioned differences refer rather to the deep structural and socializational differences between the two countries. As for their political participation a completely different way of thinking of each nations young people (and of adults) is measurable. This might be the result of relevant factors at systemic and individual level. Main results on the power of institutions (cohort and socialization effects) The main results of the analysis are presented in three tables (see Table 2, Table 3 and Table 4). As the results of Table 2 indicate, there are clear differences among Swiss and Hungarian respondents concerning political interest and political activity. As it was assumed, Hungarian respondents are less interested in politics than Swiss people and both traditional and direct political participation is lower in Hungary than in Switzerland. The difference is striking especially for direct political participation (but the median values are 1 unit higher in Switzerland both for traditional and direct political participation). Table 2 about here People living in the two societies have different attitudes (see Table 3). Swiss people are more interested in politics than young Hungarians and Swiss adults are more interested than Hungarian adults. The direct political participation of both Swiss young people and adults is significantly higher than the level of activity of the Hungarian respondents. Results also report that there are differences between young people and adults in both countries adults are more interested in politics than young people and they are more active, therefore age has a decisive role in both societies. There is only one result that might be surprising. The traditional political participation index shows similar values among young Swiss and Hungarian respondents. This results supports that (as it was mentioned about the Swiss perspective) voting in relation to other forms of participation is less important for young Swiss. Table 3 about here 16

17 Table 4 tracks changes of the level of political interest of young and adult respondents within the different ESS datasets. Results indicate similar directions: a) In both countries the level of interest in politics of adults is always higher than those who are under 30 this underlines the important effect of age on participation in both societies; b) Swiss adults are more interested in politics than Hungarian adults - the value of the difference was the smallest in the first dataset while it was the biggest in the last; c) Although young people are less interested in all datasets than adults, in some datasets the level of young Swiss respondents was higher than the level of political interest of Hungarian adults (ESS 2002, 2006, 2008 and 2010). Table 4 about here These main results reflect that our analysis compares two most different cases with different political cultures. The effects of age on political participation are evident without any deeper analysis young Swiss and Hungarian respondents are less involved in political participation than adults in both societies. Beyond the effects of age there are some differences that are worth for further investigation this will be done along the last four hypotheses of the paper. Hypothesis 2: The GAP between adults and young people in political participation will be always smaller in Switzerland than in Hungary. The second hypothesis assumed that there is a fundamental difference between the participatory tendencies of young people and adults and the difference between the activity of the two groups is always higher in Hungary than in Switzerland. The tables presented above (see Table 2, Table 3, Table 4) have shown the main differences and proved that adults are always more active than young people and Swiss adults are always more active than Hungarian adults. To test the second hypothesis the changes of participatory indexes are tracked in time (see Table 5 and Table 6). It is expected that the difference in political activity between Swiss youngs and adults will be always smaller than the difference between Hungarian youngs and adults. Table 5 and 6 about here 17

18 Results only partly prove or second hypothesis. Table 5 and 6 present the differences of the mean values of the traditional participation index and the direct participation index separately. As for the differences of the two participatory indexes 15 the results contradict to our second hypothesis, since the difference between young people and adults is always smaller in Hungary than in Switzerland. Adults are more active in both country than young people, but the size of the GAP does not change much over the time between different measurements. 16 The difference is always smaller in Hungary therefore young Hungarians do not seem to differ much from adults. This seem to contradict all that has been written above. This contradiction can be resolved bearing in mind that results show the differences of means that can cover real, substantial differences. These results might lead to misinterpretations without considering the above presented result that (see Table 3 and Table 4) the level of participation is always significantly higher in Switzerland than in Hungary both among young people and adults. So the results mirror an unexpected aspect of participation in Hungary: the traditional political and protest activity of the Hungarian society is so low that (irrespective to age) differences are less significant than in Switzerland. In Hungary both young people and adults report to have limited level of participation. As for the role of age concerning political participation these results show that while young Swiss citizens might become active citizens later, Hungarian youth will probably not get more active by the time since their parents are grandparents are not active either (see Table 7). Table 7 about here There is a striking difference between electoral participation and direct political participation. Both young and adult Hungarian citizens tend to remember that they have participated at the elections (partly because out of 6 ESS data collection 3 took place in an electoral year). While in Switzerland the percentage of those citizens who have participated at the elections is markedly smaller and the difference between young people and adults is also bigger. In total the GAP Both index have the value from 0 to 4. 0 means a respondent did not take part in any form of participation, 4 means that the responden did participate in all of them. 16 It holds also for those young people who are under The difference between those young people and adults who have participated during the last election. 18

19 between young and adults concerning electoral participation is 14 percent in Hungary while it is 27 percent in Switzerland that contradicts to our hypothesis. The other three elements of the direct political participation index show different partitions. In Switzerland participation in direct forms of political participation show a very high percentage (while the average of Swiss respondents who did so is 20 percent, only 5 percent of the Hungarian respondents participated in these forms) therefore differences seem to be bigger between Swiss young people and adults while in Hungary participation is so low that even the differences are smaller. These data reflect the difference between Swiss and Hungarian political culture. In Hungary electoral participation (that is considered as a decisive form of participation) has a remarkable role among different forms of participation, where there is a normative expectation even towards the youngest citizens to take part. In Switzerland the difference between traditional political (electoral) participation and direct political participation is much smaller, and there is no normative expectation to prefer electoral participation to other forms of political participation. Hypothesis 3: Traditional political participation of young Swiss citizens will be higher than that of Hungarian young people. The analysis on the main results partly have already referred to the results of the third hypothesis. It is expected that traditional political participation is lower among young Hungarians than among the Swiss youth. Table 8 about here Results of Table 8 indicate that there is a variation among the values measuring the difference of political participation of young Swiss and Hungarian citizens since there appear positive and negative values in the different datasets (the value is negative if the level of traditional participation of young Hungarians is higher, and it is positive if the traditional participation of the young Swiss is higher). Differences are not striking, there is no big difference in the extent of the political activity among young Swiss and Hungarian citizens. The assumption that traditional political activity of young 19

20 Swiss citizens is higher than of young Hungarians is not supported by the results. The reason behind it is the importance of electoral participation for the Hungarian respondents. However the hypothesis holds for other forms of traditional participation: young Swiss repondents have worked in political party or another organization or association and have worn or displayed campaign badge/sticker last 12 months more frequently than young Hungarians. The main difference is that without taking electoral participation into consideration young Hungarians have almost no traditional political participation at all. Hypothesis 4: Direct participation of Young People in Switzerland will be higher than of Hungarian Young People. Table 9 about here Results presented in Table 9 confirms our hypothesis. In Switzerland where direct forms of participation are much more widespread the level of participation in direct forms of participation is much higher than In Hungary. Or to look at the data the other way round the activity of young Hungarians in direct forms of participation is very close to 0 irrespective from the fact if there were parliamentary elections in the year of data collection or not. Hypothesis 5: Young people with higher level of satisfaction and more social contacts are more willing to participate in both countries. The last hypothesis suggests that better integrated, by interpersonal contacts better motivated people have higher traditional political and direct political activity than others. Results of the binary regression model are shown separately for traditional political and direct political participation by Table 10a and table 10 b in Switzerland and in Hungary 18. Table 10a and 10b about here These results do not support unambiguously the fifth hypothesis. There is no such variable that would show a clearly significant relationship to traditional and direct political participation in both countries. Moreover the participation indexes are influenced by different variables in 18 In order to make understanding easier those indendent variables that did not proove to be signifant in earlier stages of the analysis were left out from the table. 20