YOUTH 2020 - The position of young people in Slovenia

Youth political participation, social engagement, and extremism  187 It is worth to add that the trends young people’s political participation have recently been relatively favourable. Figure 4.9: Proportions of young people according to three aspects of political participation. I understand politics quite well 10% 20% 30% 40% 60% 50% 70% 80% 2010 2020 14.0 21.9 I probably would or have already contacted politicans. 20.3 31.8 Politics interests me (at least a bit) 35.4 24.2 0% Sources: Mladina 2010, Mladina 2020 Young people feel more politically competent than they did a decade ago; they are more inclined to communicate with politicians, show greater general interest in politics, and somewhat more often sign different petitions. Although these trends are promising, they do not mean that young peo- ple’s political participation is at a level that would be sufficient for socie- ty’s good democratic decision-making. Undoubtedly, there are still many challenges and open opportunities for youth policy in this area. Howev- er, it is true that tackling the challenges of persistently low political par- ticipation may be more successful given the trend shown. 4.4  RADICALISATION AND VIOLENT EXTREMISM Despite the fact that general political participation in Slovenia is low, as is interest in politics and the level of trust in politics and political institu-