engleski

Some Indicators of Political Culture of University Students in Croatia

This paper describes political culture of university students by using empirical data from quantitative research conducted in 2004. The research was part of a scientific-research project Youth and European Integration Processes, Institute for Social Research in Zagreb. The basic sample (N=2000) consisted of high- school students, employed, unemployed and university students. The subsample of university students (N=446) and a control group (N=532) were extracted from the basic sample of youth representatives. The control group comprised high school students, employed and unemployed young people. The political culture of university students is described using the indicators of political culture that were derived from Almond and Verba’s theoretical framework: interest in formal politics, support for democratic values and attitudes and trust in institutions. The analysis indicates that university students, compared to other youth (high school students, employed and unemployed), have more interest in politics, their acceptance of democratic values and attitudes is higher, but they lack trust in institutions. These findings indicate that the political culture of university students in Croatia, compared to that of other youth, has greater potential to contribute to democratic processes.

political culture ; university students ; youth ; trust ; democratic values ; democratic attitudes.

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