Youth Attitudes on Politics and Democracy: Poland

Institute of Public Affairs in cooperation with the National Democratic Institute (NDI) in July 2020 conducted a public opinion poll concerning young people attitudes towards several issues related to functioning of our state and public institutions.

We’ve asked them about their opinion on the state of democratic governance, the priorities influencing their voting intentions, youth public participation and their sources of information, as well as the government institutions and political parties responsiveness to citizens. Similar questions were posed to youth in each of the Visegrad countries by the research partners based there. The quantitative poll engaged in Poland 750 respondents aged 16 to 29. For this purpose a Computer-Assisted Web Interviewing (CAWI) methodology was used between July 2 and 7, 2020. 

Already in a public opinion research we’ve conduced with NDI in 2018 revealed a lack of political engagement among young people in Central Europe (see the report). Youth in the region neither believe that political institutions adequately represent their priorities nor that these institutions effectively include their voices. As a result, they have expressed a diminished interest in sustained political participation. This political disillusionment has also yielded decreased support for liberal-democratic institutions among some young voters. The current study results show that the outbreak of COVID-19 in early 2020 further complicated political environment in the country. The highly consequential nature of the crisis affects the priorities, outlook, and political satisfaction of young people. In the same time, some previously observed trends have deepened, as has happened with the rejection of traditional media and a constantly increasing frequency of acquiring information on public life from social media, especially Facebook. However, in this case it turns also out that during the COVID-19 pandemic traditional media enjoy greater trust and the role of electronic media, including Facebook, is decreasing.

These and other findings can be found in the full set of data presentation (available under a link visible below).
For more information, please contact us at filip.pazderski@isp.org.pl. 

In Poland, a public opinion poll was conducted by IPA in cooperation with the National Democratic Institute (NDI). Survey data was collected through CAWI interviews between July 2 and 7, 2020 from a sample of 750 citizens of Poland, ages 16 to 29. The margin of error is ± 3.58%. Concurrent research was conducted in the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia. All activity is financed by the National Endowment of Democracy (NED).