Involving youth in the democratic process
From the archives, a talk in May, 2014 about youth and democracy.
Youth apathy towards the democratic processes is a growing problem in the democratic world. Voting turnouts among youngsters are in constant decline, and participation is decreasing. How do we regain the trust and the engagement of this vast and important part of the population? How do we make young people committed to the importance of democratic processes? Can new technologies and social media be used to foster youth participation? All these questions, and more, will be discussed in this week’s webinar, with the participation of two important figures in the field of youth participation in Moldova and Tunisia: Leonid Litra and Omezzine Khelifa, moderated by Darko Brkan.
I spoke about youth unemployment in Tunisia – more than 30% of university graduates are jobless.
More than 50% of youth incarcerated are in jail for consuming cannabis. Minimal sentence is one year with a fine of 1000 dinars which is more than 4 times the minimum wage then.
One of the many legacies of dictatorship is youth perception of political parties: they are centers of corruption where self-serving people gather and organize to steal public money.
Political parties didn’t trust youth and refused to assign visible roles to youth leaders from their own organization. Hence, Tunisian youth didn’t feel represented and stayed far from politics which is in itself a failure of the transition to democracy.
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