The Mobilization Potential of Political Parties among Hungarian Students

Annamária Sebestyén

doi:10.17356/ieejsp.v6i4.590

Abstract

Situated in the literature that examines the reasons for the dearth of young party members, this article discusses the mobilization potential of political parties among the youth in light of research conducted among Hungarian university and college students (Active Youth Research, 2019). On the one hand, it analyses the mobilization propensity of Hungarian political parties, and on the other, examines to what extent party-political mobilization plays a role in encouraging young people’s involvement in party activities compared to other predisposing factors. Making use of the unique dataset, the study also investigates what attitudinal features distinguish party-politically active students from the rest of the student population. The results show that parties’ mobilization attempts are a principal factor in encouraging young people’s party participation in Hungary, although parties per se are not able to motivate them; politically stimulating family and peer groups and events that shape political views are also needed to set the stage for involvement. The article also finds that the political interest of party-politically active students is demonstrably higher than that of their counterparts, but both groups have rather negative views about Hungarian politics and are dissatisfied with the country’s democracy and present social conditions.

Highlights

It is established in the scholarship that, compared to older generations, today’s youth are less inclined to join political parties, and it is taken for granted that the main reason for this is that they are less concerned with conventional politics and conventional forms of participation
In opposition to the findings of the literature, we find that neither socio-demographic variables nor place of living nor field of education matter in terms of students’ becoming targets of parties’ mobilization attempts
The findings demonstrate that the mobilization potential of party organizations is very narrow within the student population, which leads to less effective recruitment

Summary

Introduction

It is established in the scholarship that, compared to older generations, today’s youth are less inclined to join political parties, and it is taken for granted that the main reason for this is that they are less concerned with conventional politics and conventional forms of participation (see for example Norris, 2011; Dalton, 2013; García-Albacete, 2014; Pickard and Bessant, 2018). It can be said that the low level of youth participation in party organizations may either signal the weak mobilization propensity of Hungarian parties, or the unpopularity of these organizations to youth It is worth examining the parties’ mobilization capacity and mobilization potential among young people – i.e., analyzing whether parties encourage the involvement of youth, on the one hand, and, on the other, measuring what proportion of youngsters would be willing to take part in party activities if the latter invited them to

Objectives

Results

Conclusion