While most countries in Western Europe worry about the aging of their population, many states in Eastern Europe are mainly inhabited by young people. This leads to concerns about youth employment, but it also makes investment in youth participation even more legitimate and necessary than ever before. Besides educating the young to become society-oriented citizens, we need to listen to their complex problems and to the creative solutions they come up with. Generally, politicians do not see young people as partners to do business with; they do not have money and often cannot vote. Plus, politicians sometimes think that young people are too naive or simply too young to understand complex problems.
The young
Well, is it not the politicians who rather behave strategically than solving the root causes of actual problems? The fundamental principle of youth participation is trust building in the democratic system. That means giving people the chance to gain confidence in politics by providing opportunities to participate in decision-making. Youth participation can be organized best on a local level, since that is the area where results are noticeable first. With the aid of the ‘international community’, many civic organizations are doing great work in involving the people in democratic processes in the Western Balkans. In those states, local politics are not (yet) an important layer in decision-making and therefore civil movements tend to focus on trying to influence national politics.
Go local!
Aiming to put new emphasis on youth participation at the local level in several countries in the Western Balkans, the Dutch Centre for Political Participation (Instituut voor Publiek en Politiek) has recently launched a network with four non-governmental organizations in the region. In the week of 15 to 19 May, representatives from Romania (Asociatia Pro Democratia), Croatia (GONG), Bosnia-Herzegovina (Helsinki Citizen’s Assembly Tuzla) en Kosovo (Kosovar Youth Council) participated in a training week organized by the Dutch Centre for Political Participation in Amsterdam. During this week the method of a successful youth project in The Netherlands was discussed.
Find your way
The project ‘Find Your Way in Local Government’ is a concept in which students aged 14 to 18 participate in a daylong ‘politics simulation game’ in the town hall. With a budget of € 1250 their aim is to invent and develop a plan from A to Z that is ready to be implemented by the local government. Like in real politics there are several groups with their own proposal, while only one plan can be implemented here! From the method of experiential learning the young students learn to view political processes from different dimensions. By debating about the best plans, they experience the role of politicians. By developing the implementation strategy, they understand the work of civil servants. And by representing all youth in the community, they learn to advocate for their own rights. In all, this process educates youngsters on the functioning of local democracy.
Differences
This training week has resulted in many debates concerning the differences between the democratic system in the Netherlands and in the respective countries. Despite the recent positive developments with regard to future EU-membership, the role of the local government in decision-making is still small in this region. Municipalities therefore lack the capacity and the expertise to facilitate projects like these. Strategies of implementation of these ‘project days’ have however been developed in this training week with the commitment to organize pilot projects in the respective countries. Besides, this was a great opportunity for the five organisations to share ideas and good practises in a broader context.
Shakespeare
It is important that new movements can make a start with really developing local democracy in such a way that young people have a serious role to play. The necessity for new actions and creative plans by civil society has never been so high and vital; ‘strong reasons make strong actions’ (Shakespeare, 1564-1616)!
Amir Nazar, Instituut voor Publiek en Politiek, Amsterdam