Youth Political Participation in Russia: Influence of Voluntary Associations

Abstract

Studying the reasons for youth political participation, and how young people get involved in political activities is an important issue for both developed and developing countries. Research in this area started from general tendencies and then moved to specific country factors. The purpose of this research is to determine the relationship, in Russia, between participation in voluntary associations during education and political participation during adulthood. Previously, there was no research in this field for Russia. In the research non-parametric tests for K independent samples, descriptive statistics, logistical regression, and factor analysis were applied. The main data source is the Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey. The key result is that involvement in voluntary associations during education, especially in political ones, positively affects future youth political participation. Education and income also have positive effects. Russia is generally similar to other countries, including developed, developing, and post-soviet ones. In post-soviet countries, the key interdependencies are similar to Russia, but not so clearly expressed. In Russia, employed young people vote with less probability than unemployed ones, whereas in Belarus we see the opposite.