than 60% of the respondents employed with the public administration say that their institutions are open to young volunteers. 15 But, in reality, volunteers are rejected due to their inability to meet formal or technical prerequisites. The same study has shown that only 8% of the respondents from the Republic of Macedonia's public administration said that they have the conditions to accept volunteers. Similarly, employers in the private sector"have weak motives to employ young people without any work experience". 16 The indifference of the public institutions and the private sector towards young people in the aforementioned study is explained by an existence of corruptive practices in the Balkan countries, lack of transparency in the employment policy, as well as nepotism and family connections. NGOs and religious institutions are considered to have significant influence on problem solving by the lowest percentage of respondents. Although 44% of the respondents have confidence in NGOs, an attitude compatible with that of the young people in the EU, 17 only a small number of respondents think of them as influential. It is possible that the benevolence towards the NGOs, but also the critical view of their capacities, is the explanation for the low 7.9% of respondents who are members of NGOs – a membership which, however, is the second most popular one as a form of social activity. The low 8.6% of respondents who think that religious institutions are not influential may be a result of a cause-and-effect relationship with young people's more secular affinities(as opposed to the general public). The question of whether their confidence in religious institutions would be stronger if the young people thought that these institutions could solve their problems remains to be answered. Perceptions of the Interethnic Relations The interethnic relations already were under observation. More precisely, different perceptions regarding ethnicity were tested in relation to other factors. Despite the stabilization of the conflict in 2001, the paradigm for the interethnic relations is that"the largest ethnic communities (Macedonians and Albanians) have different, even opposite, opinions regarding their interrelations". 18 But are these conclusions also valid for the youngest, and which factors influence their attitudes? If we look at the graph given below, we will see that the young people consider education, international organizations and NGOs to have a greater extent of positive influence on interethnic relations. Thus, there is a consensus among the young people in regard to education, supported by the fact that a high 42% of the general public in Macedonia thinks that the educational system does not contribute towards creation of any ethnic tensions. 19 Young people who are included, or were recently included, in the educational system estimate it as positive for the interethnic relations. Although it is not clear whether the reason for this is the quality of the curriculum or the teaching and studying arrangements of different ethnic groups, the benevolent attitude towards the educational system remains. Education is a symbol of knowledge and discovery, and by accepting it as a positive factor, the young people are sending a message that getting to know each other can help improve the ethnic relations, but also that they are not afraid to learn the differences that exist between ethnic communities. Unlike the existing consensus on the educational system, responses vary when international institutions and NGOs are in question. While the Albanians believe to a greater extent that NGOs positively influence interethnic relations(46.5%), a great number of the Macedonians chose not to answer this question(26.6%), whereas the percentages of responses that NGOs have a negative influence are similar in both groups. Hence, the Macedonians and the Albanians have different, but not opposite, views regarding the influence of NGOs. This is probably due to the fact that a great number of NGOs that are in contact with Albanians deal with interethnic issues, whereas only those Macedonians who live in multiethnic environments are in contact with that type of NGO. This results in benevolence among the Albanians, but it also seems that the Macedonians are not informed. Other factors that influenced these responses are the level of education and the place of residence. Young people with a higher level of education, who live in urban environments, to a greater extent believe in the positive influence of the NGOs; whereas those with a lower level of education and who live in rural environments 55 50 45 40 35 30 29.7 25 20 15 10 5 0 Government Who has a positive influence on the interethnic relations? 53.4 42 37.7 32.7 26.6 26.3 21.3 Parties NGO’s Local Government Media Religious International Institutions Organisations Education Graph 2. Young people's perceptions of the positive influence on interethnic relations(in percentages) _____________________________________________________________ 15 Association for Democratic Prosperity- Zid. Voluntarism and Public Institutions, Podgorica: SEEYN, 2005. 16 La Cava, et al. Young People in South Eastern Europe: From Risk to Empowerement, World Bank: January 2005, p. 72 17 Westphal, Sabine. Political Participation of Young Europeans, Vienna: SORA, 2006. 18 UNDP. Raporti për paralajmrim të hershëm, Shkup, mars 2006, faqe 39 19 Ibid. Friedrich Ebert Stiftung 17