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Youth, the ultras subculture, and populism: Perspectives from the field in Croatia (2012 – 2018)

Research on youth in Europe points to their weak interest in politics and their low level of political participation. Additionally, research in Croatia shows that citizens’ mistrust of state and political institutions has grown strongly since the early 2000s. In addition to young people’s high levels of mistrust in political institutions, research in Croatia also points to the highly negative opinion of a significant portion of this population towards the political elite. Amongst some young people, this opinion is related to a preference for a non-democratic system with a strong leader, authoritarianism, and some other radical right- wing opinions. In recent years, parallel with these trends, populist figures have established themselves in Croatian society. Populism is a political phenomenon that has been present in Western democracies for decades. Since the beginning of this century, these figures have moved from the margins into the political mainstream, and are earning greater and greater support from the voting population in the majority of European countries. The inconsistency of populism and its numerous forms in various social contexts have influenced various theoretical and empirical approaches. In recent years, two research approaches have been dominant in the literature: populism as an ideology and populism as a political style. Authors who interpret populism as an ideology consider it the foundation for the creation of a political movement that promotes the idea of a unified people opposed to a corrupt establishment, political parties, and a privileged political and economic elite. Due to its ‘thin ideology’, populism most often does not appear in a pure form, but rather interconnected with other ideologies. The idea of the people as a nation (ethnicity) is tied to right-leaning populist figures, while the idea of the people as a (separate) class is tied to left-leaning populist figures. We are primarily interested in the presence of populism among youth, especially in specific parts of youth such as the ultras subculture. The ultras subculture in Croatia has strong mobilisation potential, which sometimes breaches the boundaries of youth subculture and brings together wider swathes of society, such as mass protests against the corrupt leadership of the Croatian Football Federation. The goal of this presentation is to compare key findings from two ethnographic studies of the ultras subculture in Croatia with significant theoretical determinations of populism as an ideology. In doing so, we shall analyse key political dimensions of the opinions of respondents gathered through in-depth interviews and an analysis of their behaviour in specific situations, both at football matches and in everyday life. Between June 2012 and September 2016, we carried out ethnographic research on Torcida, the largest Croatian ultras group, which resulted in 252 field diary entries (including 120 home and away matches) and 23 in- depth interviews with Torcida members. Between October 2016 and January 2018, we carried out ethnographic research on the White Stones ultras group from Varaždin, which resulted in 53 field diary entries (including 21 home and away matches) and 25 interviews with core members of White Stones.

youth, subculture, populism, football suporetrs, Croatia

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