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Analyzing the Participation of Young People in Politics: An Exploratory Study Aplied on Motivation in Croatia

Application of marketing to the fields of politics became relevant during recent time. With this article authors wanted to explore a question of current political engagement among young people in Croatia. The question is what makes young people [aged in between 18 – 30 years] politically active in the young democracies such as one in the Republic of Croatia. Therefore authors aimed to discover the real motives hidden behind of decision for active participation in politics among young members of two largest political parties in the country – Croatian Democratic Union and Social Democratic Party of Croatia. Authors expected to find that the motivation for political engagement of young people is often connected with possible achievement of their individual goals, and egoistic needs such as: self- acceptance, social success, financial success, prestige, reputation, status, recognition from the others etc.. They have expected that, due to bad economic and social situation in the country, young people feel an increasing disconnection from politics. Additionally, authors expected to find that there is a huge potential how to engage young people into political life of the country by proper, more interactive usage of marketing communication campaigns and social media platform with an accent on highly ethical motives of political activity and their benefits to the society in total. All respondents included in quantitative survey, sample size [N=100] are active of one of the two biggest political parties in the country. The sampling and distribution of the survey occurred in the field during September 2016. A result of conducted survey demonstrates that in Croatia the way young people feel about politics and act in this manner, are in fact similar to what the theory describes. The conducted research reveals that young people are politically active. The challenge is to find a way to motivate even more young people in Croatia for active participation in the political and democratic processes in the country and to encourage them to see additional benefits out of this practice, not only related to their individual motives, related more to the well-being for the Croatia as a country and for each and every member of the Croatian society. Within conducted research authors discovered also a huge potential of political marketing communication possibilities, especially related to the interactive social media. It looks like that possible influence of social media channels among young population has stronger influence decision making process among young people when compared to groups pf reference. Young people in Croatia vary in their levels of interest in politics. Some of them are almost indifferent to the field of politics, whilst others express serious interest in different ways how to actively contribute to the political life of the country, defining participation in the political life of the country almost as their moral obligation. However, additional observations and further research are to be conducted in order to get clearer and more precise picture about total market political market among young people in Croatia and their social potential

Croatia ; Marketing communication ; Motivation ; Politics ; Young People

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