The Experiences of Youth Participation in Election Campaigns and its Impact on the Civic Position

The Experiences of Youth Participation in Election Campaigns and its Impact on the Civic Position


Barsukova S.Yu.

Dr. Sci. (Soc.), Professor, Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia. sbarsukova@hse.ru

Zvyagintsev A.V.

student of lyceum 1535, Moscow, Russia. zvyagintsev.a@liceum1535.ru

Laptieva L.S.

student of lyceum 1535, Moscow, Russia. l.laptieva@inbox.ru

ID of the Article:


This work was supported by Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR) and the Autonomous Non-Profit Organization “Expert Institute for Social Research” (ANO EISI) (project No. 20-011-33048).


For citation:

Barsukova S.Yu., Zvyagintsev A.V., Laptieva L.S. The Experiences of Youth Participation in Election Campaigns and its Impact on the Civic Position. Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya [Sociological Studies]. 2021. No 7. P. 90-100




Abstract

The statement about low electoral activity of young people is among the empirically proven ones. However, voting (or not voting) is not the only way for young people to participate in the electoral process. Election campaigns are a space of activity with a variety of functional positions that differ in qualification requirements and the size of pay. In this article, election campaigns are considered not from the point of view of ideology, but as organizational formats to involve young people in activities related to the organization and election campaigning in the Russian Federation. We are talking about the activities of young people as street agitators (traditionally called volunteers), organizers of the work in election headquarters, public observers or members of precinct election commissions. The article consistently answers the questions: what are the channels for recruiting young people in election campaigns? What is motivating young people? What forms of activity do carriers of differing motivations choose? How do young people summarize their experience of participating in election campaigns in terms of their political and career self-determination? The answers to these questions were obtained on the basis of interviews with persons under 28 who had experience of participating in election campaigns in the Russian Federation.


Keywords
political volunteerism; election campaigns; political technologies; motives for participation in election campaigns; forms of youth participation in election campaigns

References

Barsukova S.Y., Denisova-Schmidt E.V. (2020) “Political investments” of business in Russia, or why business finances election campaigns. Politicheskie issledovaniya [Polis. Political Studies]. No. 3: 110–125. (In Russ.)

Barsukova S.Y., Ionova D., Safiulina E. (2020) Mobilization of student agitators during the election campaign of Sergei Sobyanin for the post of mayor of Moscow in 2018. EKO. No. 2: 158–171. (In Russ.)

Gel’man V. The Iceberg of Russian Political Finance. In: Peter Burnell and Alan Ware (eds.), Funding Democratization. Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 1998: 158–179.

Gorshkov M.K., Sheregi F.E. (2010) Value orientations, moral attitudes, and civic engagement of young people. Monitoring obshchestvennogo mneniya: ekonomicheskie i socialnye peremeny [Public Opinion Monitoring: Economic and Social Change]. No. 1(95): 5–36. (In Russ.)

Kazun A.D., Semykina K. (2020) Presidential Election 2018: The Struggle of Putin and Navalny for a Media Agenda. Problems of Post-Communism. Vol. 67. No. 6: 455–466.

Kazun A.D. (2020) Agenda-Setting in Russian Media. International Journal of Communication. No. 14: 4739–4759.

Korgunyuk Y.G. (2008) Twilight of Electoral Engineering (To the party-political results of the Duma campaign of 2007). Politiya. No. 1: 169–192. (In Russ.)

Martynova A.V. (2013) Reasons for participation/non-participation of students in the elections of deputies of the State Duma of the Russian Federation (2011) and the President of the Russian Federation (2012). Monitoring obshchestvennogo mneniya: ekonomicheskie i socialnye peremeny [Public Opinion Monitoring: Economic and Social Change]. No. 4(116): 139–151. (In Russ.)

Skokova Y.A. (2015) Election observers in Russia. Sociologicheskie issledovaniya [Sociological Studies] No. 10: 57–63. (In Russ.)

Skokova Y.A. (2016) Dynamics of the development of the public movement of election observers: the results of the 2011–2016 study. Zhurnal sociologii i socialnoy antropologii [The Journal of Sociology and Social Anthropology]. No. 3: 65–79. (In Russ.)

Content No 7, 2021