What makes up democracy? Meanings of democracy and their correlates among adolescents in 38 countries
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What makes up democracy? Meanings of democracy and their correlates among adolescents in 38 countries Mario Quaranta1
© Springer Nature Limited 2019
Abstract Several studies investigate the meanings of democracy among the adult population. In contrast, less is known about young citizens’ ideas of democracy, and which individual and contextual characteristics are associated with them. This article contributes to the literature by uncovering the meanings of democracy and their correlates among adolescents in 38 countries. Using the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study 2009, the article shows that meanings of democracy vary among adolescents. These meanings are the results of how adolescents find various aspects of democracy, as the rule of law, freedoms, rights, pluralism, or equality, constitutive of it. Then, the article assesses whether socialization agents and personal characteristics account for the different meanings of democracy to adolescents. Finally, the analysis addresses the role that larger contexts—democratization and human development—have in the formation of concepts of democracy among adolescents. Keywords Meaning of democracy · Adolescents · Political socialization · Context · International Civic and Citizenship Education Study
Introduction Research has studied widely how adults conceptualize democracy (e.g. Shin 2017). However, less is known about what young citizens think democracy is. This article contributes to the scholarly debate by exploring how democracy is conceptualized by adolescents and which individual and contextual characteristics are associated with the different meanings they attach to it across 38 countries. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1057/s4126 9-019-00129-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Mario Quaranta [email protected] 1
Department of Social and Political Sciences, European University Institute, Via dei Roccettini, 9, 50014 San Domenico Di Fiesole, Italy Vol.:(0123456789)
M. Quaranta
Adolescents are the citizens of tomorrow, those who will shape the democracies of the future. Looking at adolescents’ ideas of democracy allows us to understand their democratic culture, values, and vision of society, and therefore, what kind of polity adolescents support (e.g. Schedler and Sarsfield 2007; Shin 2017). This is a very important point in research on the development of political attitudes as it often assumed that they might endure and define country differences from an early age (e.g. Hooghe and Wikenfeld 2008). According to the “impressionable years” hypothesis, political experiences occurring during adolescents tend to have great importance in later years political attitudes and orientations (e.g. Delli Carpini 1989; Dinas 2013). Other studies on the attitudes towards democracy among young respondents show that they have different preferences for democratic representation compared to the older counterparts (e.g. Franklin and Riera 2016). While it
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