Survey results: “Is Ukrainian youth willing to get engaged in politics?”
Survey results: “Is Ukrainian youth willing to get engaged in politics?”
Over the past month, SD Platform was conducting a survey “Is youth willing to get engaged in politics?” More than a thousand respondents accepted the offer to participate in the poll. Now the time is ripe to present and analyze the results.
Translated by Olena Kohut: Translator of the Analytical Department of the SD Platform
Almost all of the respondents (95,9%) are young people under the age of 35. The vast majority of them (74,6%) are between 18 and 25 years old.
Distrust and apathy
When asked: “Who do you trust the most in Ukrainian politics?”, the majority of respondents (38,7%) replied “No one”. The second place was taken by the former Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valerii Zaluzhnyi (35,1%), the third place was given to President Zelenskyy (25,4%), and the fourth place occupied the Head of a volunteer organization and Showman Serhiy Prytula (24%).
Such data indicates that despite the general distrust of politicians, Ukrainians are particularly distrustful of the old political elites who were in power until 2019 (before the election of Volodymyr Zelenskyy as a president).
Thus, the most popular representative of the old elite, the fifth president, Petro Poroshenko, took only seventh place (6%).
It is also necessary to mention that, according to the survey, only 6,2% of the respondents trust the Head of their locality, which also points to a total distrust of local elites.
In addition, 72,9% of respondents believe that distrust of politicians is the main obstacle to youth participation in politics.
The data above reflects a sense of disconnection between the government and ordinary citizens, which is quite a common feeling for most Ukrainians. Distrust of political elites is another significant factor, as can be inferred from the survey.
Willingness to participate
In addition to the data mentioned above that more than 90% express intention to vote in future elections, 87,4% think that young people can influence political changes in the country, and 57% believe that it is their specific engagement in politics that could make a difference.
The main obstacles to participation in politics, respondents consider to be: distrust of current politicians (72,9%), low political culture (71,3%), and lack of experience (54,2%).
As for the main challenges in political participation, those were: negative perception of politics (69,9%), feeling of powerlessness (66,1%), and lack of good examples of political leaders (57,5%).
Among the ways to address these challenges and increase youth involvement in politics, the top places in the survey were taken by: effective political youth groups (68,4%), bright examples of political leaders (64,3%), and career prospects (59,8%).
It is necessary to emphasize that the point “effective political youth groups” was given the highest ranking. This indicates the desire of young people to get involved in political organizations, even though only 17,7% of respondents are currently members of such groups.
Besides, more than 90% of interviewees are advocating the idea of improving the quality of political education in educational institutions at all levels. This is despite the fact that only 66,5% consider themselves educated in the subject of political ideologies.
These findings indicate that young people are willing to deepen their knowledge of politics, engage in it, and introduce changes. However, in order for this to happen, there is an acute need for high-quality educational programs that promote the development of political awareness, we have a necessity for effective youth political organizations that take into account the views of their members, as well as a reset of political elites, and thereby an increase in trust in politicians and creation of career paths and social elevators in politics for young people.
Conclusions and suggestions from the SD Platform
Ukrainian youth is no exception to the highly typical for Ukraine phenomena: distrust of politicians and the political process, linked to the lack of trust in political elites and a sense of being “unheard” by the authorities. At the same time, the majority expresses a desire to have a better understanding of politics, wishes to be more engaged in it, and believes that young people have the ability to make a difference.
In order to meet the needs of young people in Ukraine, we suggest the following:
For public institutions and educational institutions: to upgrade state and educational programs on political orientation, to provide financial support to those involved in working with youth, to improve the qualifications of educators and researchers.
For political parties and their youth groups: to reconsider approaches to party building given public distrust, to ensure internal democracy and value-based policies, and to step away from “leaderism” and dubious funding by oligarchs.
For donor organizations and civil society: to expand high-quality youth formats (trainings, public discussions, conferences) for better understanding of policy.
For citizens: to improve their political culture and develop a “responsible voter” attitude in themselves, to join genuine civic and political organizations, to pay membership fees, to develop critical thinking, especially in the process of information consumption, and to take more interest in local politics.
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