Abstract

TAGUENCA BELMONTE, Juan Antonio  and  LUGO NERIA, Bernabé. Perception of Democracy by Mexican Youth. Polít. gob [online]. 2011, vol.18, n.2, pp.179-230. ISSN 1665-2037.

Youth's perception of democracy is important. We are faced with young people born during a transformative period in the Mexican political system. Their values and ideological tendencies are different from those of previous generations. They also exercise a different kind of citizenry. This must be translated into a favorable, but not unconditional, opinion of democracy. In this regard, one must also consider the socioeconomic conditions that favor this form of government For this purpose, we introduced the variables of level of studies attained and socioeconomic level, and related them to the opinion that young persons have of democracy. Through the use of contingency tables, the results demonstrate that there is some relation between these variables and democracy, although it is not causal.

Keywords : Mexican youth; public opinion; democracy; educational level; family socioeconomic level; municipal socioeconomic level; belief; attitude; habitus; behavioral guidelines.