Democratic Culture in Belarus: Insights on Democratic Citizenship, Trust, and Participatory Intentions among Adolescents

This study explores the democratic culture in Belarus by describing how adolescents view norms of democratic citizenship, how they perceive societal institutions, and whether they intend to participate in civic and political life. Using survey data from 207 students from public schools in a southeastern region of Belarus, the study identified elements of a nascent democratic culture while also pointing out potential barriers to democratic consolidation. Overall, the majority of participants identified with norms of democratic citizenship, with students from urban schools seeing social movement democratic citizenship as more important than did their counterparts form rural schools. Adolescents' attitudes toward democratic citizenship and trust in societal institutions predicted their intention of taking part in electoral activities. However, neither institutional trust nor perceived importance of social movement citizenship explained variation in adolescents' intentions to take part in political life.