Noorte ootused HUWY projekti vahendusel poliitikaloomes osalemise suhtes
Date
2010
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
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Publisher
Tartu Ülikool
Abstract
Description
Expectations of Young People for Participating in Policy-Making through the
Mediation of the HUWY Project
The objective of the present master’s thesis is to examine which the expectations of
young people are for participating in policy-making through the mediation of HUWY.
In the theoretical part of the thesis, the author presented an overview of the bases and
explained important relevant terms and definitions. Democracy, participatory democracy
and digital democracy, as well as participation, pseudo-participation and information
society were examined in greater detail, focussing on young people. The presented
theoretical framework helped better understand the context of the international youth
participation project HUWY, which is connected with the present thesis and which is
explained in a more detailed manner in the chapter of empirical bases, as well as the
possibilities for increasing youth participation in political processes.
In the chapter of empirical bases following the theoretical part, the author described the
international youth e-participation project HUWY in greater detail and set forth similar
earlier practices in Europe.
In the empirical part of the thesis, the author sought answers to the following questions:
Which are attitudes and views towards e-democracy – political participation
through the Internet?
Which are the main expectations of young people for e-participation in policymaking?
Which are the main doubts of young people in connection with e-participation in
policy-making?
In order to obtain empirical results, the author used focus group interview, mini interview
and questionnaire with a small sample, which helped to collect results providing the
author with a basis for examining the main expectations and doubts of both young people
and policy-makers in connection with e-participation in policy-making on the example of
HUWY.
Despite the fact that young people are highly active in using the Internet, citizen and
political activity is very low among them, and this has given rise to academic, political
and public debates for finding the reasons why young people are alienating from politics.
However, some theoreticians claim that young people may not be less interested in
politics than the previous generations have been, but traditional participation (going to
polling divisions) is no longer appropriate in the cultural space of young people.
Decision-makers must find new approaches for involving young people in politics – for
instance, using the language and cultural room of young people upon communicating
with them, and classical ways of participating in politics (e.g. going to polling divisions)
should not be forced.
The problem of young people, who regard the fact that politicians do not join in as one of
the threats to the project, can be resolved basing on the best prior practices if various
partners and decision-makers are actively involved in the process.
Although theoreticians lay stress on the importance of mutual discussion between
politicians and citizens, what the HUWY project offers is communication with feedback
in the style “suggestion-response”, which may not always lead to a discussion. The main
expectations of young people for the HUWY project and for the decision-makers are
connected with constructive feedback from policy-makers in any situation – regardless if
the idea is a good, mediocre or unsuitable one. In addition to feedback, they also want to
see made suggestions being taken into consideration.
Upon the realization of the HUWY project, what should definitely be examined
according to the author are the contents of the website created especially for the Estonian
youth group, which involves suggestions from young people and politicians’ responses to
the suggestions. Another matter that the author considers worth examining is direct
feedback from the young people belonging to youth groups and from the politicians, who
actively make suggestions on various political topics and give constructive answers on
the project website.
One question to raise for further examination could be whether and to what extent is it
possible to reach policy-makers and further on the realization of ideas as a result of a
constructive political discussion of young people which has been created in the Internet?
Keywords
magistritööd