Political participation and democracy more broadly, have become central to the recent discourse of social scientists, practitioners and the public at large. Addressed variously under the headings of civil society, social capital, protest politics and governance, this debate has lent renewed currency to the age-old democratic question of how to ensure the effective involvement of citizens in the life and decision-making of their social and political communities.Young people seem to show considerable reluctance to engage in conventional democratic politics. At the same time, new forms of social and political involvement appear to emerge among young people; in both respects, developments in youth political participation may well indicate a more fundamental transformation of contemporary democracy over the years to come.This book provides an interdisciplinary panorama of conceptual, historical, sociological and institutional analyses of young people and their democratic involvement in Europe today. Resulting from the Council of Europe/European Commission partnership on youth research, this volume provides new perspectives to inform the efforts of scholars, practitioners and policy makers concerned with questions of young people and democracy.
Preface: participation revisited - Peter Lauritzen
Introduction: democratic politics, legitimacy and youth participation - Joerg Forbrig
Will youth rejuvenate the patterns of political participation? - Siyka Kovacheva
Constructors and constructed: youth as a political actor in modernising Turkey - G. Demet Lukuslu
The relevance of countercultures and visions of the future: examining the historical example of Hashomer Hatzair - Ofer N. Nur
Youth organisations within political parties: political recruitment and the transformation of party systems - Marc Hooghe and Dietlind Stolle
Youth and politics in Slovenia: a pre-political group in a post-political age - Metka Kuhar
Between the traditional and the post modern: political disaffection and youth participation in Galicia - Daniel Blanch
Adolescent ways of political learning: results from eastern Germany - Nicolle Pfaff
The family and the media in the political socialisation of Polish youth - Edward M. Horowitz
Opportunities for local youth participation: Flemish experience - Leen Schillemans and Maria Bouverne-De Bie
New contexts for youth participation: integrating youth theory, policy and practice in Norway - Stine Berrefjord
European youth policies and their effects in the Czech and Slovak republics - Ditto Dolejsiova
Political participation and European citizenship identity - Lynn ]amieson and Sue Grundy
Young people and alter-globalisation: from disillusionment to a new culture of political participation - Geoffrey Pleyers
Challenging assumptions about youth political participation: critical insights from Great Britain - Christine Griffin
Conclusions: translating research results into policy - Bryony Hoskins
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