Youth aspirtion survey in Republic of Macedonia Who do young people in Macedonia trust? 65 60.6 60 57 55 57 53 56 50 48 45 44.1 44.4 45.2 40 37.8 35 30 25.6 24.1 25 21.6 20 20 19.9 15 10 5 0 ent rnm ve Go ide m n e icia Ar t nt ry my Pres rlia Pa Jud lice dia Po e M an G ks O’s B N arties P EU TO A N UN cal ent Lo nm us s ligio tion ver Re titu Go ins Graph 1. Degree of the trust of the young people in the Republic of Macedonia(in percentages) Similar to trends already established for the general population, the young people have the lowest level of trust for the parliament, the government, the president of the country, the judiciary and the political parties. 6 A lack of trust in the public political institutions in transitional countries has two main explanations. The first is related to a strong confidence in the institutions for keeping peace and stability – the army and the police – which is based on people's belief in the need for a“firm” hand in politics and their authoritarian consciousness, a remnant of the old regime. The second explanation is that, since the consolidation of democratic systems had not been completed yet, as well as the impossibility of a system of“good behaviour” to be established, it is not possible for the citizens to achieve an active level of participation in politics. 7 These are the reasons the citizens feel detached from the political sphere and that their confidence in public institutions is low. Such statements could be appropriate for wider transitional processes, as well as for the influence they have on the general public. But, when research is examined regarding the perceptions of and interest in participation in politics among youth in the EU member-countries, the same disastrous results are found as in the Macedonian research. So, for example, there are similarities in that about“60% of the young people are not expected to vote” in parliamentary elections, 8 which summarizes an attitude present among the youth in EU. Moreover, research conducted in 8 EU member countries on a sample of 8,030 young people 9 by the Institute for Social Research and Analyses(SORA) from Austria, show that, on average, 64% of young people are not interested in politics. 10 Results from this analysis show that young people in Europe have an extremely low confidence in public institutions and political parties. The Table 1 compares the SORA data with that obtained in the YAS. The SORA analysis shows that young people have a low level of political socialization, but also that political participation and their degree of education are both influential factors. If we take these two conclusions and test them in the research of the Macedonian youth, one can see that both factors have a significant influence in the formation of young people's attitudes. Namely, the results presented in Table 2 show that young people with a higher degree of education – defined as having obtained a college or university degree – have higher levels of confidence than those with low levels of education or those who are not educated. The same conclusion holds true with more active youth, that is, young people who do not participate in public life have less confidence in the public institutions. Regarding political institutions, it seems the attitudes of young people in Macedonia are, to a great extent, comparable to those of the youth in the EU countries, and, as is concluded from the analysis there, the passivity of the youth changes by"the process of their maturity… and by their active inclusion to various organizations". 11 Such a Trust in Government Parliament Political parties YAS-Macedonia 21.6 25.6 19.9 SORA – 8 EU countries 12- 19 18- 24 13- 18 Table1. Comparative perceptions of youth in Macedonia and some other EU member-countries(in percentages) _____________________________________________________________ 6 For more details, see Early Warning Report, UNDP, Skopje, March 2006. 7 Ibid, p. 14 8 According to cross tabulations of the Early Warning Report from June 2006, see www.ewr.org.mk 9 The research was conducted from 2003 until 2005 in Germany, Italy, Austria, France, Finland, Great Britain, Estonia and Slovakia. For more information, refer to web page www.sora.at 10 Westphal, Sabine. Political Participation of Young Europeans, Vienna: SORA, 2006. 11 Ibid, p.36 Friedrich Ebert Stiftung 14