Youth Panel
Our panel presently consist of 181 young persons from 43 countries. With their strong interest in the development of the open society, they provide a unique opportunity to probe the minds of the emerging informed citizenry. Where many barometers focus on political opinion, The IYTT European Youth Panel addresses political ideas and concepts, and gives young people the opportunity to challenge conventional attitudes that define current political leadership.
Question 1
Have sports activities shaped you as a citizen?
[Yes] Im not sure if it counts- but since I started taking classes in Latin couple dancing, I’ve felt such feelings of joy and community cohesion. Meeting people in an urban environment that come from different backgrounds (socially, culturally, professionally)
70% Yes30% No
Question 2
Is it a democratic problem if some people do more unpaid care work than others?
[Yes] Care work requires a great deal of time and effort. Such resources are limited. So if a person has to engage in unpaid work, they will not have as much time to work a full-time job on top of it. A lot of people in this situation often end up getting just a part-time job or even not getting one at all. As a result, a part of the population is significantly underpaid, as they get paid only for their official job and not for all the other work they do at home.
Moreover, unpaid care work may take away free time from the person that does it, increasing the chances of that individual being stressed, frustrated, and having poor mental health conditions.
58,3% Yes41,7% No
Question 2
Do you think that cultural diversity is challenged in a digital world?
Yes. Surely the ascent of the internet has homogenized the behaviour and the mind of the human society as whole. It not necessarily a bad thing, it can bring people from different background together; but, at the same time, this trend can choke diversity, the engine of evolution. Is a question of finding a the good balance.
61,5% Yes38,5% No
Question 1
Do you think that it is a problem that young people are underrepresented among politicians?
Yes. For electoral reasons, politics is inclined to focus on short-term problem and adopt short-term solutions, often failing to provide for the future generations. Having old politicians only contributes to exacerbate this problem. In addition, the under representation of young people is an issue of rights, as everyone has a right to be heard and to participate in the decisions affecting them – “nothing about us, without us”.
96% Yes4% No
Question 1
Is it important for you personally, to discuss issues with people that have opinions very different from your own?
Yes. The world that we live in today is a very complex one. Nothing can me categorized anymore as strictly a “X” problem. Much like people, everything is intertwined and there are so many ways to deal with things. And there is where opinions come into play. The more opinions and different perspectives we discuss, the more solutions we might get. We also need to take into account that different voices have different chances of being heard. Just as the world is reinvented everyday, so does democracy. Democracy dies without different opinions.
100% Yes0% No
Question 1
Do you think that it is important for democracy to increase participation in higher education for individuals from non-academic family backgrounds?
Yes. Social mobility is one of the most important segments of social cohesion and stability. Individuals, especially those who are from disadvantaged backgrounds, should have access to the higher education, which might help them climb up social ladders and improve their socio-economic situation.
94,6% Yes5,4% No
Question 4
Do you believe that citizens’ assemblies would increase trust and interest in political decision-making among the general public?
Yes, to the extent that they bring together a representative sample of the population, in terms of age, gender, ethnicity, social class and place of residence, and in terms of attitude.
86% Yes14% No
Question 1
Would you support downplaying temporarily the importance of democratic decision-making and legitimacy founded on democratic representation in order to achieve quicker science- and expert-backed action to mitigate the climate change consequences?
Yes. We cannot wait for people to get educated enough or for them to care enough to react on something as important as this problem.