myplace thematic report · 2016. 1. 27. · the aim of this series of thematic reports is to...

Nov 30, 2015 MYPLACE THEMATIC REPORT: ATTITUDES AND TRUST

MYPLACE THEMATIC REPORT

ATTITUDES AND TRUST


MYPLACE: Aims and Objectives The central research question addressed by the MYPLACE (Memory, Youth, Political Legacy & Civic Engagement) Project is: How is young people’s social participation shaped by the shadows of totalitarianism and populism in Europe? Key themes addressed include:

Understanding the legacy of totalitarianism and populism;

Mapping youth participation and civic engagement;

Exploring receptivity to new radical and populist political agendas.

Case study approach The MYPLACE project used a case study approach, using 30 carefully selected research locations (illustrated in Figure 1) which provided within country contrasts in terms of hypothesised receptivity to radical politics. MYPLACE work strands include:

Questionnaire survey (N = 16,935, target = 600 per location) of young people aged 16-25;

Follow up interviews (N = 903, target = 30 per location with a sub-sample of these young people;

44 ethnographic studies of youth activism, in 6 thematic clusters;

Ethnographic observation at 18 sites of memory including expert interviews with staff (N = 73), focus groups with young people (N = 56) and inter-generational interviews (N = 180).

Thematic Reports The aim of this series of thematic reports is to present a general Europe wide thematic analysis of young people’s views, attitudes and behaviour towards a range of social and political issues. This report focuses content on Attitudes and Trust, and will cover the following areas:

Attitudes towards politicians and politics;

Overall trust in institutions and organisations;

Trust in core national political institutions;

Trust in national parliament;

Trust in European Commission;

Format

Each page presents a specific theme and contains descriptive narrative, quotes from interviews and two graphs presenting questionnaire survey data. One graph presents the theme by the 30 research locations (colour coded into clusters of locations). These second graph illustrates a demographic breakdown. Quotes cited as ‘Interviewee’ emanate from follow up interviews with a subset of the survey sample of young people while those cited as ‘Activist’ are from young people interviewed as part of the ethnographic case studies. Statistical techniques have been used to construct derived variables (Factor Analysis) and test reliability (Cronbach Alpha or Correlations).


Attitudes towards politicians and politics Young people feel detached from and have generally negative views of politicians. The MYPLACE survey asked respondents to state whether they agreed or disagreed with three statements relating to politicians and politics: ‘politicians are interested in young people like me’; ‘politicians are corrupt’; ‘the rich have too much influence over politics’. Their answers to these three statements have been combined to indicate overall attitudes towards politicians and politics. These have been standardised on a 0 to 100 scale, with 100 representing the most negative attitudes towards them. The overall average for all locations is 69.2 (n= 16,018, sd = 21.5), demonstrating relatively negative attitudes towards politicians and politics. This varies from New Philadelphia (GR) with 85.7 with the most negative attitudes to Odense Center (DK) with 43.2 with the least negative. ____________________________________________ “[politicians are] a bunch of fellows wearing suits who sit in that marvelous room we visited at school, the Parliament, and they discuss about us, make decisions about us without taking into consideration what we think; and they make all those great speeches full of promises that they are not going to keep […]'” [Interviewee, GREECE] ____________________________________________

Figure: Negative attitudes towards politicians and politics by location

Locations in Greece, Portugal and Croatia have the most negative attitudes towards politicians and politics. Locations in Denmark, Finland and Georgia have the most positive attitudes towards them. ____________________________________________ “’Is it so that Finland is in the Top5 amongst those [countries] where politicians are not corrupted? So there are really few of them here” [Interviewee, FINLAND] ____________________________________________

Figure: Demographics breakdown


Overall trust in institutions and organisations The MYPLACE project found that young people across Europe are characterised by lack of trust in institutions. The MYPLACE survey asked respondents to state to what extent they trusted 13 different institutions and organisations: ‘the courts’; ‘the police’; ‘the head of government (PM)’ ; ‘The media (national press and TV)’; Banks; ‘The United Nations’; The European Commission’; ‘Parliament’; ‘Amnesty International’; ‘The army’; ‘Greenpeace’; ‘religious institutions’. The answers to all 13 institutions and organisations have been combined to indicate an overall level of trust towards institutions and organisations. They have been standardised on a 0 to 100 scale, with 100 representing the highest level of trust. The overall average for all locations is 49.3 (n=15,422, sd = 19.1), demonstrating moderate levels of trust in institutions and organisations. This varies from Telavi (GE), 69.5 with the highest levels of trust to Argyroupouli (GR), 36.6 with the lowest levels of trust. ____________________________________________

“But… the faith in the basic institutions, in the courts, I don’t know. Why Croatia has more judges than, I don’t know, Great Britain, and every process is three years late? That is again because of that huge bureaucracy.” [Interviewee, CROATIA] ____________________________________________

Figure: Levels of trust in institutions and organisations by location

Locations in Georgia, Finland and Denmark have the highest levels of trust in institutions and organisations. Locations in Greece, Spain and Croatia have the lowest levels of trust. ____________________________________________



Trust in core national political institutions Focusing on core national political institutions reveals that young people tend not to trust those in positions of power in their country. Three of the 13 institutions presented in the MYPLACE survey represent core national and political institutions: ‘head of government PM’; ‘parliament’ and ‘political parties’. Respondents trust in these three institutions was combined to indicate an overall level of trust in core national political institutions. The answers have been standardised on a 0 to 100 scale, with 100 representing the highest level of trust. The overall average for all locations is 41.8 (n=16,128, sd = 22.9), demonstrating low to moderate levels of trust in core political national institutions. This varies from Kuopio (FI) 61.8 with the highest levels of trust to Argyroupouli (GR), 24.2 with the lowest levels of trust. ____________________________________________

“The government is impotent. Well, I think that the only thing it does, is to create more problems because it pushes people to the limits and it doesn't solve the problems, it creates more - consciously or unconsciously” [Interviewee, GREECE] ____________________________________________

“At least parties don’t fight with each other. They take care of issues with discussion and talking about things […] They take care of issues and don’t fight.” [Interviewee, FINLAND] ____________________________________________

Figure: Level of trust in core national political institutions by location

Locations in Finland, Denmark and Georgia have the highest levels of trust in core national political institutions compared with locations in Greece, Croatia and Portugal where trust is the lowest.



Trust in national parliament Country level characteristics are more important determinants of youth trust in national parliaments than location level characteristics Respondents of the MYPLACE survey indicated their level of trust in the national parliament. Their answers have been represented on a 0 to 100 scale, with 100 representing the greatest level of trust in national parliament. The overall average for all locations is 45.0 (n=16,465, sd = 25.8), demonstrating low to moderate levels of trust in the national parliament. This varies from Odense Center (DK), 64.9, with the highest levels of trust to Pescenica (HR), 26.1 with the lowest levels. ____________________________________________ “The government, the majority acknowledge the fact that inequality exists, and now they want to try and develop the economy.” [Interviewee, FINLAND] ____________________________________________

“'They [politicians] decide without taking into

consideration the views of people that voted for them. That's what I think. One thing is certain: if they cared for the people, they would have done something about that. That's why I think they are corrupted because they

don't care about anything.”

[Interviewee, GREECE] ____________________________________________

Figure: Level of trust in national parliament by location

Locations in Denmark, Finland and Georgia have the highest levels of trust in the national parliament. Croatia, Greece and Latvia have the lowest.



Trust in European Commission Trust toward the European Commission was, examined individually, given the importance of the European perspective to the MYPLACE project. Respondents of the MYPLACE survey were indicated their level of trust in the European Commission. Their answers have been used to create a scale of 0 to 100, with 100 representing the highest level of trust. The overall average for all locations is 51.7 (n=15,333, sd = 23.9), demonstrating moderate levels of trust in the European Commission. This varies from Telavi (GE), 66.0 with the highest levels of trust to Argyroupouli (GR), 34.5 with the lowest levels. Locations in Georgia, Finland and Estonia have the highest levels of trust in the European Commission. Locations in Greece, Russia and Croatia have the lowest levels of trust. Those who were critical of the EU often complained that membership undermined national sovereignty. ____________________________________________

“I’m afraid that we, the Croats, won’t be autonomous

ever again.” [Activist, Croatia]

____________________________________________ However, some respondents thought that the EU should become a stronger and tighter union. ____________________________________________

“the problem is that though the EU is a monetary

union, it is not yet a political union.”

[Activist, western Germany] ____________________________________________

Figure: Level of trust in the European Commission by location.

From outside the EU membership appeared to offer significant economic and security benefits. ____________________________________________

“If we were in the European Union, we would not have

so many economic problems, I think. We would also keep our territorial integrity, they [the EU] would help us to defend [ourselves] and I think it would be good if

we joined the EU and NATO as well.”

[Activist, Georgia] ____________________________________________



MYPLACE Partners

General Acknowledgement We would like to thank the young people across Europe who participated in this study, all the fieldworkers and the various public, private and voluntary organisations who supported the fieldwork. We hope to have done justice to the collective efforts of so many people in our analyses. Without funding under the EU’s Framework 7 programme none of this work would have been possible.

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