printThe Experiences of Youth Participation in Election Campaigns and its Impact on the Civic Position
Barsukova S.Yu.
Dr. Sci. (Soc.), Prof., Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences, HSE University, 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
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).
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
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.
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