YOUTH 2020 - The position of young people in Slovenia

174 “I try to be as socially engaged as I can, I participate at the university, in a political party, charities and so on. I think we have to get more young people involved and I think that young people in general want to be involved in society, but they don’t know how to be. Then they face, or we, face issues.” (Luka, 21 years old, student, athlete and right-wing politician) In general, young people report that they do not understand politics very well, which of course has a negative effect on their political participation. Figure 4.1: I understand politics. 0% 30% 50% 80% 90% 20% 10% 70% 60% 40% Completely disagree Disagree Neither agree or disagree Agree Completely agree I don't know 2010 2020 24.4 26.3 24.6 16.7 5.2 32.8 27.3 25.6 11.7 2.3 0 100% 1.6 Sources: Mladina 2010, Mladina 2020 In addition to political knowledge, which is an important determinant of political participation (Smets and Van Ham, 2013: 355; Macedo et al., 2005: 32), this includes an interest in politics. Verba et al. (1995) cite po- litical interest as one of the main factors guiding individuals to engage in politics. Macedo et al. (2005: 34) argue that political interest in a cam- paign in terms of political participation lags only behind the habit of previous participation in voting. The degree to which citizens are inter- ested in politics is a legacy of pre-adult experiences, including political debates at home and participation in school activities, in which parents have relatively little influence. At the same time, it should be pointed out that political interest is triggered by stimulation from the political envi- ronment (ibid.). According to the OECD (2019), the comparative interest