Preliminary communication
CROATIAN YOUTH POLICY – THE CONTEXT, THE CONCEPT AND THE LIMITS
Nikola Buković
; Faculty of Political Science, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
The author presents the complex institutional framework of the youth policy in Croatia using the theoretical insights from network management, described in the edited volume by Kickert, Klijn and Koppenjan Managing Complex Networks, as well as the typology of Theodor Lowi who recognises four basic types of policies: distributive, redistributive, regulative and constitutive. The analysis shows that the youth policy in Croatia is basically a redistributive policy with elements of regulative policy. It is also shown that the success of the policy depends on strengthening the roof youth organisation that could be both a partner and a critic in the working of government. Exploring whether young people have material goods, whether they are represented in the formal decision making bodies and whether they are well informed, the article points to the disadvantaged position of young people in Croatia that corresponds to the concept of social exclusion, which means that young people suffer from the impossibility to influence the circumstances, rules of the game and the future development of the political community where they live.
Keywords
young people; youth policy; network management; redistributive policy; power; social exclusion
Hrčak ID:
29024
URI
Publication date:
18.11.2008.
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