Apoliticality of youth from the perspective of higher education students

Young people are described as apolitical and indifferent and at the same time they are seen as a mass that provides political participation. The aim of this research is to exhibit young people to express their opinions, demands and suggestions about political participation. For this purpose, in-depth interviews were conducted with the participants using a qualitative research design. The obtained data were analyzed using thematic analysis method. In this context, the findings were discussed under four main headings: the relationship of young people with politics, the restrictive factors in front of young people's political participation, the concerns of young people and their suggestions to increase political participation. Although there are some who describe themselves as apolitical when expressing their relations with politics, most of them stated that there are different ways and interpretations of participation. For the participants, the limiting factors in front of the political participation of young people are as follows: the current image of politics, the polarization that has occurred in the social domain, the disbelief that change can be achieved through politics, and the society's point of view towards young people. Finally, the participants expressed their views, demands and suggestions towards the administrators and young people in order to increase the political participation of young people. When all these findings are evaluated together, it has been concluded that most of the young people are not apolitical but depoliticized because, they are not accepted by the political system, think that they cannot influence and encounter various restrictive factors in the ways of political participation.