Youth and Expectations on Democracy in Spain: the Role of Individual Human Values Structure of Young People in Dimension of Democracy


Abstract


Democracy is a form of social organization based on popular sovereignty. The rise of democracy has run in parallel to economic growth in society and this system of government has been increasingly adopted in other countries (Inglehart, 2005). The same concept has been defined over time in different ways according to their historical characteristics. According to Kluckhohn (1958), humans react to external stimuli as well as to their own interpretations of stimuli as per a cognitive framework defined by the cul-ture in which the individual is inserted. This research is aimed at learning how values influence the concept that young Spaniards have of democracy and determine how these affect each dimension, factor or element in which the study of this type of social organization can be divided. In order to carry out this research we are using data from the sixth round of the European Social Survey (ESS) conducted in 2012. The sample consists of two groups, one with individuals aged 18 to 30 and a second group with people over 30 years of age. Results indicate that democracy —and its elements— is not an ideal concept, or it should not be seen as an invariable, objective concept, external to citizens. It is rather an adaptive and evolving instrument, consubstantial to each individual’s vital experience and society’s in its whole in which values have a joint function between the macro and the micro-social groups.

DOI Code: 10.1285/i20356609v9i3p777

Keywords: Human values; structural modelling; democracy; youth; politics; attitudes; democracy’s dimensions; citizens; government; social change

References


Ai Camp R. (1998), Province Versus the Center: Democratizing Mexico's Political Culture in Kelly P. (ed.), Assessing Democracy in Latin America, Boulder: Westview Press.

Baviskar S., Malone M.F. (2004), “What Democracy Means to Citizens and Why It Matters”, European Review of Latin American and Caribbean Studies, 76: 3-24.

Benedicto J., Morán M.L. (2007), “Becoming a citizen. Analysing the Social Representations of Citizenship in Youth”, European Societies, 9 (4): 601-622.

Bratton M., Mattes R., Gyimah-Boadi E. (2005), Public opinion, democracy, and market reform in Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Cabrera A., Muñoz V. (2009), “A propósito del Informe Juventud en España 2008 en clave política”, Revista de Estudios de Juventud, 87: 97-107.

Carratalá L. (2016), La estructura de valores en la Unión Europea: cómo definen y valoran los jóvenes europeos la democracia a través de su sistema de valores. Doctorate, University of Alicante.

Coll J. (1998), La nueva condición juvenil y las políticas de juventud, Diputación de Barcelona, Barcelona.

Easton D. (1976), Esquema para el análisis político, Buenos Aires: Amorrortu.

Francés F. (2008), “El laberinto de la participación juvenil: estrategias de implicación ciudadana en la juventud”, OBETS. Revista de Ciencias Sociales, 2: 35-51.

Francés F., Santacreu O. (2014), “Crisis política y juventud en España: el declive del bipartidismo electoral”, SocietáMutamentoPolitica, 5(10): 107-128.

Ganuza E., Francés F. (2008a), “Rethinking the Sources of Participation: A Case Study of Spain”, European Sociological Review, 24 (4): 479-493.

Ganuza E., Francés F. (2008b), “¿A qué llamamos participar en democracia? Diferencias y similitudes en las formas de participación”, Revista Internacional de Sociología, 66 (49): 89-113.

Halman L., de Moor R. (1994), Religion, churches and moral values, in Ester P., Halman L., de Moor R. (eds), The Individualizing Society, Tilburg: Tilburb University Press.

Hirschman A. (1970). Exit, Voice and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations and States. Harvard University Press, Harvard.

Inglehart R., Welzel C. (2006), Modernización, cambio cultural y democracia: la secuencia del desarrollo humano. Madrid: Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas (CIS).

Kluckhon C. (1951), “Value and value orientations in the theory of action”, in Parsons T. and Shils E. (eds.), Toward a general theory of action, Cambridge (MA): Harvard University Press.

Krauskopf D. (2010), “La condición juvenil contemporánea en la constitución identitaria”, Última década, 33: 27-42.

Lagos M. (2005), Latinobarómetro 2004, América Latina y Unión Europea, Latinobarómetro.

Margulis M. (2001), “Juventud: una aproximación conceptual”, in Burak S.D. (ed.), Adolescencia y Juventud en América Latina, Cartago: Libro Universitario Regional.

Morlino L. (2009), Qualities of Democracy. How to Analyse them? Istituto Italiano di Scienze Umane, Florence.

Reisinger W.M., Miller A.H. and Hesli V.L. (1995), “Public Behavior and Political Change in Post-Soviet States”, Journal of Politics, 57(4): 941-970.

Ringen S. (2007), What Democracy is For. On Freedom and Moral Government. Princeto: Princeton University Press.

Rodríguez R. (2013), “El triunfo y la crisis de la democracia liberal”, Política y Sociedad, 50(2): 657-679.

Rokeach M. (1973), The Nature of Human Values, New York: Free Press.

Schwartz, S.H. (1992), “Universals in the Content and Structure of Values: Theory and Empirical Tests in 20 Countries”, in Mark P., Zanna (eds.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, New York: Academic Press, 1-65

Schwartz S.H. (2001), “¿Existen aspectos universales en la estructura de los valores humanos?”, in Ros M., Gouveia V. (Eds.), Psicología Social de los Valores Humanos. Desarrollos teóricos, metodológicos y aplicados, Madrid: Biblioteca Nueva.

Schwartz S.H. (2003), “A Proposal for Measuring Value Orientations across Nations”, Chapter 7 in the Questionnaire Development Package of the European Social Survey.

Schwartz S.H. (2007), “Value Orientations: Measurement, Antecedents and Consequences across Nations”, in Jowell R., Roberts C., Fitzgerald R, and Eva G. (eds.), Measuring attitudes cross-nationally: Lessons from the European Social Survey” (eds.), London: Sage, 161-193

Schwartz S.H., Bilsky W. (1990), “Toward a theory of the universal content and structure of values: Extensions and cross-cultural replications”, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology: 878-891.

Touraine A. (1996), “Juventud y democracia en Chile”, Revista Iberoamericana de Juventud, Organización Iberoamericana de Juventud: 8.

Santoni I. (2013), “Participar sin pertenecer. La participación política de los ciudadanos no nacionales en dos áreas urbanas: Alicante y Florencia”, OBETS. Revista de Ciencias Sociales, 8(1): 147-173.

Whitefield S., Evans G. (1996), “Support for Democracy and Political Opposition in Russia, 1993 and 1995”, Post-Soviet Affairs, 12: 218-242.

Williams R. M., Jr. (1968), “Values”, in Sills E. (Ed.), International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, New York: Macmillan.


Full Text: PDF

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.
کاغذ a4

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribuzione - Non commerciale - Non opere derivate 3.0 Italia License.