Description
Outline
At a time when young citizens seem increasingly disaffected with
politics, a significant number of young people keep joining political
parties every year. This study looks at their motivations, their
participation, and their perception of their own political involvement. We
assess the validity of number of political science theories and evaluate in
which ways and to what extent young party members seem to differ from their
older counterparts.
The project is empirical and uses surveys and in depth interviews of young members of 13 political parties in six European democracies: France, UK, Germany, Spain, Norway, and Hungary. It will last 27 months from 2004 to 2007 and will result in several academic publications books and articles in major journals.
Process
Our project relies on an intense co-operation between the political
parties selected to be included in the study, and our research team, based
at the London School of Economics and Political Science, the largest social
science research centre in the world.
The list of parties selected is solely based on the scientific criteria needed to obtain a representative and consistent sample of the organisations young citizens tend to join. As of July 2005, 11 of the 13 parties have been approached and all have enthusiastically accepted to participate in the project.
In fact, the project requires very little effort from the parties selected, poses no risk at all to them, and offers some potentially attractive incentives.
The Methods
We ask parties to circulate a one page survey about the motivations and
background of members aged 18 to 25 to their members, usually via e-mail.
The party members are given a party code and fill in our questionnaire
directly on line on www.youngpm.org.
The questionnaire takes about 5 to 10 minutes to answer. We will then
ask about 50 volunteer party members, from at least four different regions, to take part in a short (about
20 minutes) face-to-face interview about the history of their involvement
with the party. The survey and interview do not ask for 'judgemental'
opinions about the party but only questions such as whether the member's
parents were already active members, whether the member is also active in
non-partisan organisations, etc. Usually, when we visit the branches, the party
kindly allow us to use a small room to conduct the interviews with the volunteers.
What is in it for the party?
Every political organisation is better off knowing a little bit more
about its members. Knowing what made them join, what motivates them, and how
they perceive their own involvement is priceless information to a party and
one which can only be comprehensively gathered by professional and
independent specialists. We have a long expertise of survey design and
analysis and this is exactly the sort of information we provide to the party
at no cost. The party receives a fully detailed confidential report on its
specific members, and how their answers compare to the national and
cross-country average in the study. If are a political party or a young
people's association linked to a party and you are interested in taking part
in the study, we will be
happy to discuss the formulation of these questions directly with you.