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Suggested Citation:"6 The Transition to Citizenship." National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. 2005. Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11174.
×

6
The Transition to Citizenship

INTRODUCTION

The transition to adulthood includes the acquisition of civic rights and responsibilities by young people and the possibility for heightened social, civic, and political participation. Opportunities for participation are important for both an individual’s development and socialization as well as for larger social and political goals such as maintaining social contracts, nation building, fostering political and economic stability, and ensuring the sustainability and strength of democracy (Erikson, 1968; Putnam, 2000; Youniss et al., 2002).

During this phase of the life cycle, young people assume legal rights and responsibilities in relation to the state and forge identities and relationships with society and groups outside their immediate families. As young people explore and assume active roles in their societies, they develop a sense of belonging and hone decision-making skills that are important for psychosocial development (Erikson, 1968). These relationships and experiences facilitate the growth of social capital, as young people build social networks and gain access to the resources and opportunities that these connections regulate (Portes, 1998). Many of the behaviors and attitudes that individuals adopt as young people predict lifelong civic affiliations and perspectives (Flanagan et al., 1999; Youniss, McLellan, and Yates, 1997).

Many of the attributes of successful transitions as defined by the panel—including the acquisition of an appropriate stock of social capital, the acquisition of prosocial values and the ability to contribute to the collective well-being, and the capability to make choices through the acquisition of a

Suggested Citation:"6 The Transition to Citizenship." National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. 2005. Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11174.
×

sense of self and a sense of personal competence—are all part of effective citizenship in its best sense. Furthermore, the rights and opportunities that young people are granted and the agency they develop as part of the transition to adult citizenship are often closely linked to the outcomes of other important transitions to adulthood, including health, schooling, work, and the acquisition of adult roles in the family, as well as the range of social spaces they are ultimately able to inhabit.

In this chapter, we examine the practice of citizenship among young people as well as the institutions, policies, and programs that can foster effective citizenship in the developing world. We define citizenship broadly to encompass not only legal rights and obligations in formal political processes but also engagement with diverse social, cultural, and economic institutions and integration and full participation in families and communities. The nature of citizenship can range widely: at the most constructive end of the spectrum, it is characterized by the guarantee of voice, the development of agency, and the ability to exercise leadership in governing social and political structures; at the other end, it may be characterized by exclusion and repression. Individuals who experience successful transitions to adult citizenship feel invested and engaged; those who don’t often feel isolated and powerless. Individuals excluded from full citizenship may express apathy toward civic involvement, while others may turn to violence in a struggle, either to disrupt the system that denies them full rights and status or to create alternative social orders in which they find belonging and opportunities for participation.

Given the enormous political changes that have occurred in many countries in the developing world over the past few decades, we pay particular attention to the ways in which citizenship and community participation may be changing, especially as the “communities” with which young people can engage expand and evolve. Globalization provides them with new opportunities to participate as world citizens. Citizenship is not defined solely by national boundaries or relationships to state governments, but increasingly by interaction with global and local institutions. Young people growing up throughout the world, and especially in developing countries, must be able to negotiate a world with immense political and economic inequities and with societies torn by ethnic or religious conflict. International conventions and agreements have enshrined a set of human rights, state responsibilities, and principles for democratic governance. The young people of today and the leaders of tomorrow will be responsible for promoting, realizing, and enforcing these ideals. As the world is interconnected in ways never before, adults in the twenty-first century need to be prepared to act as global and local citizens who can effectively communicate and cooperate on such issues as the economy, the environment, and security.

Although there is a growing body of literature on young people and

Suggested Citation:"6 The Transition to Citizenship." National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. 2005. Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11174.
×

citizenship in the United States and other developed countries (Flanagan et al., 1999; Putnam, 2000; Torney-Purta et al., 2001; Yates and Youniss, 1999), research dedicated to this subject in most developing countries is only just emerging. The dramatically different histories, sociopolitical arrangements, and cultural conceptions of citizenship and participation of nations in Africa, Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East preclude easy comparisons with the United States and Europe and, similarly, with each other. However, when adequate data from developing countries are not available, we use data from the United States and Europe to illustrate important themes related to the transition to adult citizenship and to highlight potential areas for future research.

This dearth of data from developing countries—including ethnographic studies and large-scale statistical analyses—poses a considerable challenge. The entrance of young people into civic and political participation and the factors that affect their attitudes and behavior have not been a subject of much analysis in the development literature until very recently, despite the belief that young people are often the leaders of change and those most willing to critique their government or challenge existing norms (Braungart and Braungart, 1993; Erikson, 1968). Correspondingly, literature on young people has emphasized traditional development imperatives, such as education and health, with only peripheral treatment of the emerging roles of young people as community participants and decision-makers. For example, none of the indicators in the United Nations Children’s Fund’s (UNICEF’s) State of the World’s Children Report, the United Nations Development Programme’s Human Development Indicators, or the World Bank’s World Development Indicators looks at youth civic engagement.1 While many nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and programs have been addressing citizenship themes for some time, there is little rigorous documentation or evaluation of these efforts.

In this chapter, we bring together the limited knowledge that is available to examine when and how individuals become citizens at the global, national, and local levels. We begin by reviewing changing notions of citizenship in the globalizing world. We then examine when and how individuals receive formal recognition and rights at these multiple levels. The next section examines the practice of citizenship by young people—primarily in Latin America and Asia, where cross-national data on young people are available—including political and civic participation and the modes of so-

1  

However, the 2003 UNICEF State of the World’s Children report focuses on child participation. Although no measures of child participation have been permanently incorporated into this report, this edition highlights the important role of civic engagement in the successful development of young people around the globe.

Suggested Citation:"6 The Transition to Citizenship." National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. 2005. Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11174.
×

cial connectedness. We then address the formation of citizenship by young people, with specific attention to how the transition to adult citizenship relates to other important transitions. Finally, we summarize key findings and make recommendations for policy and research.

CITIZENSHIP: AN EVOLVING CONCEPT?

Historically, concepts of citizenship have been rooted in Western liberal thought regarding the relationship between individuals and the nation-state. Thus, in its narrowest historical meaning, citizenship refers to membership in the nation-state and the formal rights and obligations this membership entails (Shapiro, 2000). Civic participation has been associated with practices that support democratic governance, such as voting, staying engaged with or taking leadership positions in political parties or the government, and staying informed about political affairs. Correspondingly, civic education has generally referred to developing citizens who are well informed, patriotic, and moral and who have an understanding of political processes, systems of government, and citizens’ rights and responsibilities (Morris and Cogan, 2001; Torney-Purta et al., 2001).

The pivotal work of T. H. Marshall extended the concern with civil and political rights to social and economic rights (1950). His approach recognizes that the social relationships between individuals and the state and those between individual citizens shape access to the resources and opportunities necessary for people to fully participate as citizens (Ellison, 1997; Lister, 1997; Turner, 1999). Another strand of citizenship theory expands the discussion further by focusing on the attitudes and shared values that form the cultural underpinnings of citizenship (Almond and Verba, 1963). However, the formalized rights and responsibilities outlined by the nation-state are never perfectly achieved by all eligible citizens; it is the set of social practices that connect the individual to the state that give citizenship meaning. The balance and tension between institutionalized rights and responsibilities and the strength of civic culture highlight the ambiguity and dynamism of citizenship in modern society (Mische, 1996).

Definitions of citizenship developed in liberal Western democracies cannot simply be transferred to other parts of the world. In particular, the meaning of citizenship and ideas of belonging and identity are often more complex, but no less meaningful, in postcolonial societies. At independence, many new nations have found themselves struggling to create a cohesive identity out of the diverse ethnic, language, and religious groupings that had been brought together by colonialism (Abah and Okwori, 2002; Anderson, 1983; Gaventa, 2002). Rather than coming together under a single nationalism, these alternate sites of identity serve as the foundation for political and economic power in many countries in sub-Saharan

Suggested Citation:"6 The Transition to Citizenship." National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. 2005. Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11174.
×

Africa. These relationships of ethnic, religious, and language identities mediate both access to rights and resources and the way that individuals relate to the nation-state (Mamdani, 1996). In these constructed nation-states that encompass populations with multiple identities and loyalties, young people from minority communities face particular challenges as they seek access to opportunities that are regulated by a dominant group, such as enrollment at public universities and employment in the civil service (Adebanwi, 2002; Fokwang, 2003).

In many developing countries, an individual’s roles and privileges in society may be influenced by their status in kinship, ethnic, and age hierarchies. Typically, these relationships have deeper roots and greater weight than connections to the modern state (Joseph, 1997). The lack of political institutions that link the citizen to the state as well as cultural considerations are important factors to consider when evaluating levels and types of participation (Bratton, 1999). Furthermore, postindependence nation-building has closely linked citizenship with economic growth and opportunities (Khilnani, 1997). As many of the economies and governments in developing countries find themselves unable to deliver on their promises, poverty may contribute to a sense of disenfranchisement or political unrest.

A resurgence of interest in citizenship occurred in the late 1980s and 1990s, following the end of the Cold War, the rise of market-led economic policies, and the democratization of many countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the former Soviet Union (Acharya, 1999; Youniss et al., 2002). In many places, these effects of globalization have changed the sociocultural landscape of the nation-state (Appadurai, 1996; Featherstone, Lash, and Robertson, 1995). These changes have meant that civic learning could not simply be passed down from generation to generation, but that all citizens were novices (Flanagan et al., 1999; Marr and Rosen, 1998).

Several forces, such as the pervasiveness of market-led economic change, the revolution in information and communication technology, and transnational flows of people, have made a rethinking of citizenship imperative. The types of skills needed to become effective participants in a global society are changing rapidly, and people’s movements across borders result in transnational identities and obligations. The idea of citizenship itself is in great flux as the ingredients for meaningful participation in society evolve. For example, access to media and information technology has become an essential way for staying engaged in society. Furthermore, greater mobility and better communication technology allow religious, ethnic, or ideological groups to organize across national borders in order to fight for rights and hold states accountable for their actions (Castells, 2000; Keck and Sikkink, 1998).

The acceleration of the pace of change, another contemporary feature

Suggested Citation:"6 The Transition to Citizenship." National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. 2005. Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11174.
×

of globalization, has created additional challenges for the formation of citizens. For example, urbanization and industrialization can often be disruptive to existing social and cultural systems, making it more difficult for young people to integrate into cohesive community networks, and making it more likely that they resort to violence in order to establish their membership and status (Heitmeyer, 2002). Furthermore, the rapidly growing populations of young people present challenges to governments to provide adequate education, employment, and health services (Brockerhoff, 2000). The challenges of participating in a highly competitive market economy have also made traditional livelihoods less sustainable, with many communities and young people getting left behind (Richards, 1996). All of these changes can contribute to the alienation of young people and the potential for harmful activities.

Globalization has been associated with rising awareness of deep economic and political inequalities. The disparity between universalistic concepts of citizenship, which guarantee rights for all, and the actual reality, in which poverty, gender, race, and ethnicity inhibit individuals from full participation, has spurred renewed theorization about this subject. “Inclusive” citizenship refers to a situation in which no one is disenfranchised or unable to participate fully in civic or political affairs. Kabeer (2002) outlines what she thinks are the most critical barriers to inclusive citizenship: ethnic and religious divides in postcolonial societies, such social inequities as gender and poverty, and issues of culture and identity. Inclusive citizenship encompasses a broad set of meanings, central to which are ideas of participation and agency (Lister, 1997). These definitions are not confined solely to interactions with the state but extend to individuals’ engagement with all of civil society.

Feminist critiques of citizenship theory bring attention not only to the degree to which women may not be able to participate in formal political life but also to the domestic sphere of life as a crucial terrain in which citizenship is exercised on a daily basis (Dietz, 1998; Pateman, 1988; Phillips, 1998). Even in societies in which the domain of women is separate from that of men, women may still exercise power and influence when they are able to create a public world of their own (Rosaldo, 1974). For young women making the transition to adulthood, the existence of safe social spaces in which girls can interact with their female peers serves as a critical site for the development of self-esteem and identity, building the foundations for future community engagement.

The recognition of citizenship as an expression of agency expands the understanding of the subtleties that influence participation. In this context, agency is more than the capacity to make choices and act on those decisions; it involves a conscious capacity to act (Lister, 1997). This conscious sense of agency operates at both the personal and the political levels and is

Suggested Citation:"6 The Transition to Citizenship." National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. 2005. Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11174.
×

crucial for the full realization of one’s capabilities. Self-esteem and a sense that one is worthy of participation in political life mediate decision-making and one’s ability to utilize the resources of human and social capital. Together these build a sense of political competence that is a necessary condition of active citizenship (Kabeer, 2000; Lister, 1997).

Modern conceptions of citizenship are interconnected with development and human rights approaches. These approaches insist that individuals be active participants in development projects, and that they be engaged in the decisions and processes that affect their lives (Holland, Blackburn, and Chambers, 1998). The participation-in-development approach arose from efforts to foster decision-making by the poor, promote a good governance agenda for governments, and advocate a rights-based approach to development (Gaventa, 2002). Combating the formal and informal forces of social exclusion, particularly as it extends to forms of economic inequality, has become a key theme in recent development policy (United Nations Development Programme, 2002). Active citizenship is also an integral component of human rights discourse, which has become increasingly influential as a framework for pursuing development goals in a sustainable and just manner (Sen, 1999). Despite this new thinking, however, most indicators of citizenship—reflected in the literature cited in this chapter—continue to be oriented toward the measurement of conventional forms of political party participation and voting for candidates to public office.

In the current global era, citizenship must be understood to encompass multiple meanings, from membership and participation in the nation-state to various other social and political interests, activities, and memberships, ranging from the household to the local community to the global arena. Furthermore, citizenship must be understood to encompass not only the rights and responsibilities of membership but also the acquisition of the capabilities to exercise those rights and responsibilities. In the discussion we give special attention to the transition to full citizenship and civic participation, a process that, if it occurs at all, typically occurs during adolescence. Given the panel’s criteria for successful transitions, the definition of a successful transition to adult citizenship must include the capability to make choices through the acquisition of a sense of self and a sense of personal competence, as well as the acquisition of prosocial values and the ability to contribute to the collective well-being as citizen and community participant.

FORMAL AND LEGAL RIGHTS OF CITIZENSHIP

The ages at which individuals are granted rights by the state or held accountable for their actions indicates social recognition of accountability and the responsibilities often associated with the onset of adulthood. Most

Suggested Citation:"6 The Transition to Citizenship." National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. 2005. Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11174.
×

of the formal norms granting rights and recognizing individuals occur at the national level. However, global platforms and local communities have become critical sites in promoting young peoples’ rights, social spaces, and status.

Youth Citizenship Rights at the Global Level

Since the inception of the United Nations (UN), important conventions (which carry the force of international law among signatory countries) and agreements (derived from international meetings and conferences and thus less binding upon signatory countries) have sought to establish rights and create beneficial conditions for people, including children and young people. Notable among these global commitments are:

  • the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (San Francisco, 1948),

  • the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (New York, 1966),

  • the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (New York, 1966),

  • the World Summit for Children (New York, 1990),

  • the United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development (Rio, 1992),

  • the World Conference on Human Rights (Vienna, 1993),

  • the International Conference on Population and Development (Cairo, 1994),

  • the World Summit for Social Development (Copenhagen, 1995),

  • the Fourth World Conference on Women (Beijing, 1995),

  • the Second United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Istanbul, 1996), and

  • the World Food Summit (Rome, 1996).

International agreements and conventions have broadened interpretations of citizenship and rights, spawned social action and political activity, and provided a political forum beyond the nation. The approaches promoted in these documents have been adopted by such implementing agencies as UNICEF and the United Nations Development Programme as well as many international and national NGOs.

Few agreements and conventions specify an age at which individuals are guaranteed rights. The Convention on the Rights of the Child defines children as those under age 18, but it includes limited language that differentiates adolescents from younger children. Ratified by all countries except Somalia and the United States, it outlines such child rights as freedom to express views in all matters affecting the child, freedom of thought and

Suggested Citation:"6 The Transition to Citizenship." National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. 2005. Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11174.
×

religion, freedom of association, access to national and international media, and entitlements to education, health care, a safe living environment, and nationality (United Nations, 1989). Articles and conventions providing protections for young workers (discussed in Chapter 5) and juvenile offenders also specify minimum ages.

Nevertheless, attention by international agencies and national governments to young people as a population with particular attributes and needs emerged with great force in the mid-1980s, with the enactment of the International Youth Year in 1985, followed by special sessions of the UN General Assembly in 1985 and 1995. These discussions culminated in the adoption of the UN World Program of Action for Youth in the Year 2000 and Beyond (PAY)—a document that builds on the various references to young people expressed in previous global forums, including the 1992 UN Convergence on Environment and Development, 1993 World Conference on Human Rights, 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), 1995 World Summit for Social Development, and 1995 UN Fourth World Conference on Women. PAY commits governments to adopt a series of actions, beginning with the formulation of a national youth policy, progressing toward the translation of this policy into a youth program of action, and then implementing these activities. As in previous instances of other global agreements, the declarations of intent exceed by far actions taken by governments at the national level. Commitments made at the Children’s World Summit in 1996 have been poorly followed. At present, 13 years after the ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and almost 10 years after the Children’s World Summit, very few countries in the world have developed action plans for children.

Girls and young women have received specific mention in several conventions, complementing the rights established for adult women in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, first adopted in 1979 and ratified by 177 countries as of March 2004.2 Most attention in these conventions has been given to civil rights and the legal status of women as well as to their reproductive rights. The Program of Action of the World Social Summit for Social Development devotes particular attention to younger women because of the recognition that gender equality and equity and the full participation of women in all economic, social, and political activities are essential to attain social development (United Nations, 1989:Point 15.g). Similar objectives were further reiterated at the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995

2  

A list of countries that have ratified the convention is regularly updated and available at: http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/states.htm.

Suggested Citation:"6 The Transition to Citizenship." National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. 2005. Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11174.
×

(United Nations, 1996). Likewise, the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) Program of Action dedicates substantial attention to adolescents in Chapter VII, on “Reproductive Rights and Reproductive Health.”3 Global commitments by states are not always implemented, but some of them do have significant impacts. According to the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (Durston, 1995), the 1990 World Summit for Children and the 27 specific goals it identified have served as a powerful stimulus for improvements in the health, nutrition, and education of children in Latin America.

In addition to establishing the rights of young people, international governmental and nongovernmental organizations have granted young people some opportunities to participate in international conventions, conferences, and dialogues. Each member country of the UN is invited to include a youth representative in their delegation to the General Assembly; however, as of 2003 only six countries had appointed such representatives.4 Youth delegates have played a more active role at recent UN conferences, such as the World Summit for Social Development in 2002, at which the youth caucus led debates on energy and labor, and the five-year review meeting of the UN International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD+5), at which young participants formed the Youth Coalition, an international group of 15-29-year-olds committed to promoting adolescent and youth sexual and reproductive health rights and knowledge.

Other nongovernmental organizations have supported international organizations of young people, such as the Global Youth Action Network,5 which mobilizes youth organizations for participation and collaboration on international issues, and Oxfam International, which organizes the International Youth Parliament.6 However, many global youth activism groups acknowledge that announcements of forthcoming conferences and meetings are primarily posted on web sites and listservs, thereby restricting participation to those with access to the Internet (Lombardo, Zakus, and

3  

Only once does it refer explicitly to male adolescents, when they appear mentioned together with adolescent females concerning the need of governments to provide them with “information, education, and counseling to help them delay early family formation, premature sexual activity, and first pregnancy” (United Nations, 1994:Paragraph 8.24).

4  

At the 2003 session of the United Nations General Assembly, youth representatives were part of the delegations from Australia, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden. The session in 2000 also included youth representatives from Bangladesh and India. A complete list is available at: http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unyin/youthrep.htm.

5  

Information about the Global Youth Action Network can be found at: http://www.globalyouthactionnetwork.org.

6  

Information about the International Youth Parliament can be found at: http://www.iyp.oxfam.org.

Suggested Citation:"6 The Transition to Citizenship." National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. 2005. Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11174.
×

Skinner, 2002). Furthermore, for almost all of these organizations, young people are chosen to participate after completing lengthy applications that describe their past commitments to youth activism and social justice; of the few young people who do participate in discussions at the international level, the voices heard are often those with the most resources and the best education.

National Citizenship Rights: Young People and the State

An essential component of citizenship and political participation is an individual’s relationship with the state. This relationship can include formal citizenship privileges, such as the right to vote and the ability to run for office; entail the laws governing military service or access to health care, education, and employment opportunities; involve the treatment of individuals in the criminal justice system; and define the treatment of foreign visitors, immigrants, and refugees. It is during the period of adolescence that individuals assume adult status in the eyes of the state. In this section we look at how different governments legally define the transition to adult citizenship by reviewing the age at which young people gain full rights and responsibilities.

Table 6-1 presents the legal ages at which young people are able to vote, leave school, begin work, join or be conscripted into the army, and be held responsible for their actions in the criminal justice system. (The legal age at marriage, a particularly important indicator of adulthood in the eyes of the state, is discussed in Chapter 7.) The table documents the variability in the minimum ages at which individuals are granted rights by the state within and across countries. In countries that have a minimum age for leaving school or starting work, the ages tend to fall in the mid-teens. The majority of countries listed in the table allows young people to exercise the right to vote at 18, although a small number of countries give citizens this right at slightly older or younger ages. In many countries there is no minimum age for school leaving, employment, or military recruitment, if there is parental consent. Although minimum age laws set national standards for the timing of various status transitions, these laws often differ vastly from actual practice.7 When information is available, the table also notes when military service is open to females in addition to males.

Policies pertaining to education, work, and marriage are covered in other chapters, but policies on juvenile crime deserve closer attention here.

7  

Although not listed in Table 6-1, representation in government offices is another way to formally recognize social groups. However, comparative data on the minimum age at which individuals can hold public office and on whether there are government positions set aside for young people are not available.

Suggested Citation:"6 The Transition to Citizenship." National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. 2005. Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11174.
×

As with other policy arenas, the legal frameworks concerning the treatment of young people in the criminal justice system vary widely by country; multiple systems may operate simultaneously, and practice may diverge from the actual law. Information on the age at which young people are tried as adults is listed in Table 6-1. Data on the actual incidence of juvenile crime would be useful to monitor patterns and trends; however, due to differences in legal categories, data collection, and reporting in each country, it is difficult to find comparable statistics.

Human rights organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have documented the abuse and age-insensitivity of many criminal justice systems. In many instances, children have little or no understanding of why they were arrested or what the charges against them mean. They are often held in adult jails and given limited access to lawyers. The incarceration of young people in adult facilities not only leaves them vulnerable to abuse, but also inhibits any potential rehabilitation or positive socialization. When these young people are released, they are often less equipped with the human and social capital necessary to succeed than when they were first arrested (Amnesty International, 2000, 2002, 2003; Human Rights Watch, 1994a, 1994b, 1996, 1997a, 1999a, 1999b). The Convention on the Rights of the Child, other international agreements,8 and many child and youth advocacy agencies promote the use of separate court systems and detention facilities for young people.

Police brutality is especially rampant against poor young people, whose survival strategies are often criminalized (e.g., street children, sex workers). In Kenya, the three most common reasons for the detention of children were “destitution and vagrancy,” being “beyond parental control,” and “begging” (Human Rights Watch, 1997b). Although there is reason to believe that the vast majority of “infractions” are related to economically motivated, nonviolent crimes, in many countries there is a popular imagery that associates lower class children and adolescents with violent and organized crime (Adorno, 2002; UNICEF, 1998).

Many international organizations have also fought to raise the minimum age for military recruitment or participation in armed conflict to age

8  

Several international norms exist for the treatment of juveniles in the criminal justice system. These include the 1955 Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Beijing Rules (United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Administration of Juvenile Justice, 1985), United Nations Rules for the Protection of Juveniles Deprived of their Liberty 1990, and the Riyadh guidelines (United Nations Guidelines for the Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency 1990) (UNICEF, 1998). The minimum guidelines set out in these provisions include separating young prisoners from adults in custodial facilities and prohibiting the death penalty for crimes committed when younger than age 18 (UNICEF, 1998). However these international norms have not been fully integrated into national legislation and enforcement.

Suggested Citation:"6 The Transition to Citizenship." National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. 2005. Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11174.
×

TABLE 6-1 Age of Majority for Various Activities

Region and Country

Voting

Leaving School

Employment

South-central/South-eastern Asia

Bangladesh

18

 

12

Bhutan

varies

no min.

 

Cambodia

18

no min.

16

East Timor

 

Fiji

 

no min.

12

India

18

14

14

Indonesia

17

 

Iran

15

11

15

Laos

18

11

15

Malaysia

21

 

Myanmar

 

no min.

no min.

Nepal

18

 

Pakistan

 

Philippines

18

 

Singapore

 

Sri Lanka

18

 

Thailand

18

 

13

Vietnam

18

 

Eastern Asia

China

18

 

Korea, Democratic Peoples

17

16

 

 

Korea, Republic

20

 

Mongolia

18

Middle East

Algeria

18

16

16

Bahrain

 

no min.

14

Egypt

18

14

14

Iraq

18

 

 

Jordan

19

16

16

Lebanon

21

11

13

Libya

18

15

15

Morocco

20

 

 

Oman

 

no min.

13

Palestine

 

Qatar

 

no min.

 

Saudi Arabia

 

 

13

Sudan

17

no min.

16

Syria

18

12

12

Tunisia

20

16

16

Turkey

18

14

no min.

United Arab Emirates

 

11

15

Yemen

18

no min.

16

Suggested Citation:"6 The Transition to Citizenship." National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. 2005. Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11174.
×

Voluntary Military Recruitment

Compulsory Military Recruitment Age

Criminal Responsibility

Women Allowed in Militarya

16

b

7

Noncombat

18

b

 

 

18

b

no min.

 

18

b

 

 

 

10

 

16

b

7

Noncombat

18

18

16

 

16

18

 

 

 

 

15

 

18

b

 

Noncombat

 

18

7

Nurse corps

18

b

10

Medical corps

18

b

7

 

18

18

9

Yes

16.5

18

 

 

18

b

8

Yes

18

18

7

Yes

 

18

14

 

no min.

18

14

 

16

17/18

14

17/18

18/20

12

 

18

16

 

 

13

 

18

b

no min.

 

18

7

Noncombat

15

18 (<18 in war)

9

 

17

b

7

Yes

18

18

7

No

14/16

17-19

7

 

18

18

12

 

 

9

Yes

18

 

18

b

7

 

 

b

10

No

 

17

7

 

 

19

7

Noncombat

18

20

13

Noncombat

19

19

11

Yes

 

b

7

Yes

18

15

No

Suggested Citation:"6 The Transition to Citizenship." National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. 2005. Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11174.
×

Region and Country

Voting

Leaving School

Employment

Western/Middle Africa

Angola

18

 

Benin

18

 

14

Burkina Faso

18

no min.

no min.

Cameroon

20

no min.

14

Cape Verde

18

16

14

CAR

18

 

14

Chad

18

15

no min.

Congo

 

Côte d’Ivoire

21

no min.

no min.

DRC

 

no min.

no min.

Gabon

21

16

16

Gambia

18

no min.

 

Ghana

18

15

no min.

Guinea

18

16

 

Guinea-Bissau

18

no min.

no min.

Liberia

18

 

Mali

18

 

no min.

Mauritania

18

no min.

14

Niger

18

16

14

Nigeria

18

 

Senegal

18

Sierra Leone

21

15

no min.

Togo

18

15

14

South America

Argentina

18

15

14

Bolivia

18/21e

 

Brazil

18

Chile

18

14

14

Colombia

18

15

14

Ecuador

18

 

14

Guyana

18

 

Paraguay

18

12

no min.

Peru

18

18

12

Suriname

18

no min.

14

Uruguay

18

 

Venezuela

18

14

14

Suggested Citation:"6 The Transition to Citizenship." National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. 2005. Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11174.
×

Voluntary Military Recruitment

Compulsory Military Recruitment Age

Criminal Responsibility

Women Allowed in Militarya

 

17

 

21

21

13

 

20

18

13

Yes

18

b

10

Yes

 

16

 

18

18

13

18/any agec

20/any agec

13

Yes

18

b

 

18

18

10

Yes

 

16

 

18

b

13

18

b

7

18

18

7

Yes

 

18

18

 

18

16

18

b

 

Yes

18

18

13

Noncombat

18/16c

17

no min.

Yes

 

18

13

 

18

b

7

18

18

13

No

consent or 18

18

10

 

18

18

no min.

18

b

16

Yes

14

18

16

Yes

17

19

 

Yes

18/16?

18

16

Yes

18

18

18

Noncombat

 

18

18

Yes

b

 

Yes

18

18

14

No

 

b

12

Yes

b

10

 

18

18

18

Yes

18

18

18

Noncombat

Suggested Citation:"6 The Transition to Citizenship." National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. 2005. Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11174.
×

Region and Country

Voting

Leaving School

Employment

Former Soviet Asia

Azerbaijan

18

 

Belarus

18

Kazakhstan

18

Kyrgyzstan

 

15

Tajikistan

14

Turkmenistan

 

Uzbekistan

 

16

Caribbean/Central America

Bahamas

18

 

Barbados

 

16

no min.

Belize

18

14

12

Costa Rica

18

no min.

15

Cuba

16

 

17

Dominican Republic

18

14

14

El Salvador

18

 

Guatemala

18

 

no min.

Haiti

18

 

Honduras

18

13

14

Jamaica

18

 

Mexico

18

15

no min.

Nicaragua

16

 

14

Panama

18

 

14

Trinidad & Tobago

 

12

12

Eastern and Southern Africa

Botswana

18

 

Burundi

18

12

12

Comoros

 

14

no min.

Djibouti

18

 

13

Eritrea

 

Ethiopia

18

no min.

14

Kenya

18

no min.

no min.

Lesotho

18

 

no min.

Madagascar

18

 

Malawi

18

no min.

no min.

Mauritius

18

 

Mozambique

18

no min.

 

Namibia

18

 

Rwanda

 

Suggested Citation:"6 The Transition to Citizenship." National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. 2005. Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11174.
×

Voluntary Military Recruitment

Compulsory Military Recruitment Age

Criminal Responsibility

Women Allowed in Militarya

18

18

14

 

 

18

16

18

 

18

14

 

18

 

18

18

 

 

18

13

Yes

 

b

 

18c

b

7

 

18

b

7

18

18

18

 

16/17

16

18

b

12

16

18

16

Noncombat

18

18

12

Yes

18

b

 

18

b

12

Yes

18

b

12

 

16c

18

no min.

 

17

b

13

Yes

18

b

18

 

18

b

7

Yes

18

b

 

Admin. only

16

16

13

 

 

13

 

b

13

18

18

 

18

18

9

Noncombat

18

b

8

Yes

 

b

7

 

 

13

18

b

7

Noncombat

18

b

14

 

 

18

16

Yes

18

 

7

 

16

b

14

Suggested Citation:"6 The Transition to Citizenship." National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. 2005. Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11174.
×

Region and Country

Voting

Leaving School

Employment

South Africa

18

15

no min.

Swaziland

18

 

Tanzania

18

13

no min.

Uganda

18

 

no min.

Zambia

18

 

Zimbabwe

18

aThis category is based upon the best available information. These countries that allow women in the military may restrict their participation to certain divisions.

bNo compulsory conscription.

cWith consent of parents.

dGraduates of secondary school.

e18 for married, 21 for single.

18. In 2002, the UN Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict, entered into force.9 This agreement raised, from 15 to 18, the minimum age for direct participation in hostilities, compulsory military recruitment, and any recruitment by nongovernmental armed groups.10Table 6-1 shows that while most countries with compulsory military recruitment limit conscription to those ages 18 and older, many countries do not place the same restrictions on those who enlist voluntarily. However, most compulsory recruitment laws apply only to men; most countries prohibit women from enlisting in the military or else restrict them to noncombat units (Table 6-1).

Significant gender differences also remain in social protections and legal access to resources in many countries.11Table 6-2 shows whether

9  

The status of ratifications of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict is regularly updated at: http://www.unhchr.ch/pdf/report.pdf.

10  

The Africa Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, ratified in November 1999, also prohibits the recruitment or direct participation of young people under the age of 18 in armed conflicts. Furthermore, the International Labour Organization’s Convention 182 includes “forced or compulsory recruitment of children for use in armed conflict” among the worst forms of child labor (Article 3).

11  

The Center for Reproductive Law and Policy analyzes national legislation around the world to investigate the legal norms and protections regarding women’s rights in different countries (1997a,b, 1999, 2001). Their Women of the World series provides one of the comprehensive sources of information about gender equity in national legislation not only in terms of reproductive and sexual rights, but also in property and inheritance laws.

Suggested Citation:"6 The Transition to Citizenship." National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. 2005. Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11174.
×

Voluntary Military Recruitment

Compulsory Military Recruitment Age

Criminal Responsibility

Women Allowed in Militarya

18

b

7

 

18

b

 

 

15

18d

 

 

18

b

7

Yes

18, <18c

 

 

Yes

18

b

7

Yes

NOTES: No min. = no minimum. Most of the above sources relied on country reports submitted to the United Nations in compliance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child to monitor changes in national legislation regarding minimum age restrictions. Different sources and often the legislation itself contain contradictions regarding minimum age laws, and every attempt has been made to include the most recent and reliable information.

SOURCES: Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers (2001); Melchiorre (2002); UNICEF International Child Development Centre (1998); Marshall (2000).

men and women have equal inheritance, property, and divorce rights. Although these rights typically apply to adults, they shape young people’s expectations with respect to opportunities for livelihoods and marriage prospects, affect rates of return to schooling and other forms of training, and perpetuate a traditional division of labor by gender.

Independent country case studies corroborate that there are significant and pervasive gender differences in the ability to inherit, own, or acquire property, an important asset that is critical not only for economic prosperity and security but also for social status, agency, and equal domestic power relations (Agarwal, 1994). Women’s access to land and other natural resources, such as water and forests, is limited not only by formal laws, but also by cultural norms (Meinzen-Dick et al., 1997). This is an important area for research and intervention as women’s ability to own property is linked to their empowerment, the health and wealth of the household, efficiency of resource use, and equity of resource allocation (Agarwal, 1994; Meinzen-Dick et al., 1997; Quisumbing and Otsuka, 2001). While deep gender inequities in property rights continue to exist in many societies, other countries have begun to reform their laws, especially at the national level. However, these regulations may vary within countries according to customary or religious law, or by national and regional dictates, creating multiple legal frameworks (Meinzen-Dick and Pradhan, 2001).

Suggested Citation:"6 The Transition to Citizenship." National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. 2005. Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11174.
×

TABLE 6-2 Access of Women to Equal Inheritance, Property, and Divorce Rights

Region and Country

Equal Inheritance Rights

Equal Property Rights

Equal Divorce Rights

South-central/South-eastern Asia

Bangladesh

no

no

n.a.

Bhutan

yes

n.a.

yes

Cambodia

n.a.

yes

yes

Fiji

yes

yes

n.a.

India

no

no

no

Indonesia

no

yes

no

Laos

n.a.

yes

n.a.

Malaysia

no

no

no

Myanmar

yes

yes

yes

Nepal

no

no

no

Pakistan

n.a.

n.a.

no

Philippines

no

no

no

Singapore

n.a.

n.a.

no

Sri Lanka

yes

yes

no

Thailand

no

n.a.

no

Vietnam

yes

n.a.

yes

Eastern Asia

China

yes

yes

yes

Korea, Republic

yes

yes

no

Mongolia

n.a.

yes

yes

Middle East

Algeria

no

n.a.

n.a.

Egypt

no

n.a.

no

Iraq

no

yes

no

Jordan

no

no

no

Lebanon

no

no

no

Libya

no

n.a.

no

Morocco

no

n.a.

no

Tunisia

no

no

no

Turkey

no

no

no

Yemen

n.a.

n.a.

no

Western/Middle Africa

Angola

yes

yes

yes

Benin

noa

noa

n.a.

Burkina Faso

no

yes

no

Cameroon

no

no

no

Cape Verde

yes

n.a.

yes

CAR

yes

yes

yes

Chad

yes

yes

n.a.

Suggested Citation:"6 The Transition to Citizenship." National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. 2005. Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11174.
×

Region and Country

Equal Inheritance Rights

Equal Property Rights

Equal Divorce Rights

Congo

no

no

no

DRC

no

no

no

Gabon

no

no

no

Gambia

no

n.a.

no

Ghana

no

no

no

Guinea

no

no

no

Guinea-Bissau

no

no

no

Mali

no

no

no

Niger

no

no

no

Nigeria

no

no

no

Senegal

no

no

yes

Sierra Leone

no

no

n.a.

Togo

no

no

no

South America

Argentina

yes

yes

yes

Bolivia

noa

noa

yes

Brazil

yes

yes

yes

Chile

yes

no

n.a.

Colombia

yes

yes

yes

Ecuador

n.a.

yes

yes

Guyana

no

n.a.

no

Paraguay

yes

n.a.

yes

Peru

yes

yes

yes

Uruguay

yes

n.a.

yes

Venezuela

n.a.

n.a.

no

Former Soviet Asia

Azerbaijan

n.a.

yes

n.a.

Belarus

yes

yes

no

Kazakhstan

yes

yes

n.a.

Kyrgyzstan

yes

yes

yes

Tajikistan

yes

n.a.

yes

Turkmenistan

yes

yes

n.a.

Caribbean/Central America

Barbados

n.a.

n.a.

yes

Costa Rica

n.a.

yes

yes

Cuba

yes

yes

yes

Dominican Republic

yes

yes

no

El Salvador

yes

n.a.

no

Guatemala

yes

yes

yes

Haiti

n.a.

n.a.

no

Honduras

n.a.

yes

yes

Jamaica

no

yes

no

Suggested Citation:"6 The Transition to Citizenship." National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. 2005. Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11174.
×

Region and Country

Equal Inheritance Rights

Equal Property Rights

Equal Divorce Rights

Mexico

n.a.

yes

yes

Nicaragua

n.a.

n.a.

yes

Panama

yes

yes

yes

Trinidad & Tobago

n.a.

n.a.

no

Southern/Eastern Africa

Botswana

n.a.

no

no

Burundi

no

no

n.a.

Comoros

n.a.

yes

no

Eritrea

n.a.

no

n.a.

Ethiopia

yes

yes

no

Kenya

no

no

no

Lesotho

no

no

no

Madagascar

no

no

n.a.

Malawi

n.a.

yes

yes

Mauritius

n.a.

yes

no

Mozambique

no

no

n.a.

Namibia

yes

yes

yes

Rwanda

n.a.

n.a.

yes

South Africa

no

no

no

Tanzania

no

no

no

Uganda

no

no

no

Zambia

no

no

no

Zimbabwe

no

no

yes

aProperty and inheritance rights are equal in the civil code, but according to customary law and in practice, women are restricted from inheriting or holding property.

NOTE: n.a. = not available.

SOURCES: International Planned Parenthood Federation and International Women’s Rights Action Watch (IWRAW) (2000); Center for Reproductive Rights (1997a, 1997b); and Center for Reproductive Rights (1999).

THE PRACTICE OF CITIZENSHIP

We now move from the formal legal relationship between young people and the state to examine the ways in which they participate in social and political arenas. Specifically, we look at youth participation in and attitudes toward formal politics and activism. The data on youth civic participation, attitudes, and perceptions are scant. Large-scale surveys that either address young people specifically or disaggregate by age tend to focus on health and economic indicators, with little or no attention to political or civic participation. The panel was unable to identify any cross-national set of public

Suggested Citation:"6 The Transition to Citizenship." National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. 2005. Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11174.
×

opinion polls or surveys of civic and political participation that spanned the entire transition to adulthood. Commonly cited data sets, such as the World Values Survey (WVS)12 and the Barometer surveys in Latin America and Africa, include only respondents ages 18 and older, while surveys that target young people—such as the UNICEF Young Voices Surveys in Latin America, the Western Pacific, Europe, and Central Asia and the civic education and knowledge surveys conducted by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA)—are restricted to those ages 17 and younger. In particular, it is important to note the scarcity of cross-national quantitative data on the practice of citizenship among young people in sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East. Whenever possible, these shortcomings are supplemented by ethnographic data that highlights the diversity of the practice of citizenship in these regions. For further discussion of the data, see Appendix A.

Not only are there few cross-national, representative surveys of public opinion and political behavior conducted among young people in developing countries, but the content of these surveys also has several limitations. First, these surveys are grounded in the measurements of citizenship and political participation derived from traditional Western understandings of the subject, in particular the relationship of the individual to the nation-state and of the individual to the community. However, as mentioned earlier, this is not an accurate representation of all forms of social organization. Joseph (1996) points out that many Middle Eastern nations recognize citizens as members of family units, religious sects, and ethnic, tribal or other subnational groups; citizenship, its rights, and its responsibilities are not constructed entirely in terms of the individual. It is important to collect data that are grounded in local social and political realities. Although this makes cross-national comparisons, such as the ones in this chapter, more difficult, the recognition of the diversity of political experiences and modes of expression enriches the understanding of youth citizenship formation.

Second, the surveys that we will rely on for our discussion have not fully encompassed in their questionnaire designs the diverse realizations of democracy that exist globally. Although democratic principles are broadly compatible with diverse religious and cultural traditions, there is growing divergence in the quality or depth of democracy in recently democratized nation-states (Diamond and Plattner, 2001). The levels of participation discussed here provide some insight into diverse patterns of engagement

12  

As this report was being prepared, data from the 2000 World Values Survey were not publicly available. Unless otherwise noted, the tables included in the text use data from the 1995-1996 WVS.

Suggested Citation:"6 The Transition to Citizenship." National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. 2005. Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11174.
×

with the community and the nation-state, but they do not provide any information about what meanings young people themselves attach to these structures and relationships. At this stage, more in-depth qualitative studies are needed, in order to document the range of local possibilities for young people to engage with their communities.

Although data are scarce, it is important to consider the processes by which young people acquire political and civic values and begin to participate and assume adult responsibilities in the public sphere. When possible, the established literature and the above-mentioned data sets are used to illustrate current patterns of political and civic activism across the transition to adulthood. Furthermore, we draw on the qualitative research of political scientists, sociologists, and anthropologists in order to understand the heterogeneous ways in which young people engage with their communities.

Participation in Formal Politics
Knowledge and Interest in Politics

Interest in politics is a well-tested variable included in most public opinion surveys to assess levels of engagement and concern about politics and current events. Dalton (1996) calls political interest “cognitive political mobilization” and found that it is one of the strongest predictors of voting in Western countries. The IEA studies showed that, in Australia, several European countries, Russia, and Hong Kong, men tended to express more interest in politics than women (Amadeo et al., 2002; Torney-Purta, Schwille, and Amadeo, 1999). This gender gap is closing in some countries, including Chile and Colombia, where the gender difference was not statistically significant.

In the World Values Surveys, more than half of all respondents ages 18-34 discuss politics with friends13 (Table 6-3). Young men are more likely than young women to discuss politics in every country surveyed, although the size of the gender difference varies widely, from almost 24 percentage points in India to 3 in Georgia and 2 in the Dominican Republic. Young people in Asian countries are collectively the most likely to discuss politics, while young people in South America are least likely to do so. In almost all developing regions except Southeastern and Southwestern Asia, the younger cohort of 18-34-year-old men is less likely to discuss politics than the

13  

The sample size of young adults ages 18-24 in the World Values Surveys is too small to produce valid statistical results at the country level. Following the example of Tilley (2002), all our tables that use WVS data are based on 18-34-year-olds.

Suggested Citation:"6 The Transition to Citizenship." National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. 2005. Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11174.
×

TABLE 6-3 Percentage Discussed Politics with Friends (“frequently” or “occasionally”)

Region and Country

Male (Ages)

Female (Ages)

18-34

35+

18-34

35+

Caribbean/Central America

Mexico

68.3

68.6

53.6

51.1

Dominican Republic

80.0

86.7

78.0

77.8

Eastern/Southern Africa

Nigeriaa

76.8

76.6

56.5

56.0

South America

Argentina

65.5

76.0

53.9

55.7

Brazil

58.6

68.2

52.6

52.8

Chile

52.5

51.4

43.6

38.6

Peru

70.1

67.5

56.9

51.1

Uruguay

57.7

60.6

51.3

43.7

Venezuela

55.8

59.5

48.9

45.5

SE/SW Asia

Bangladesh

86.4

79.7

69.2

54.8

China

79.8

72.2

64.9

59.9

Indiab

77.2

71.2

52.8

37.6

Pakistan

72.4

66.9

46.0

41.5

Philippines

75.5

78.0

74.6

71.9

Middle East

Turkey

75.4

77.5

58.5

56.4

Former Soviet Asia

Armenia

78.8

84.0

68.5

72.2

Azerbaijan

60.1

60.7

45.1

41.6

Georgia

66.6

82.0

63.9

78.3

Developed Countries

Germany

94.4

93.2

85.0

85.7

Japan

47.6

69.7

32.2

56.3

South Korea

89.5

89.3

83.5

70.6

Spain

66.2

57.8

63.8

37.0

USA

71.6

79.9

62.1

68.8

TOTAL

70.7

71.8

61.0

57.4

aThe sample in Nigeria is restricted to urban areas.

bThe sample in India is restricted to those who are literate.

NOTE: All figures are percentages.

SOURCE: 1995-1998 World Values Surveys.

Suggested Citation:"6 The Transition to Citizenship." National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. 2005. Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11174.
×

cohort of men older than 35, while more young women appear to discuss politics than older women among the developing countries participating in the survey. Inglehart and Norris (2003) suggest that, as the education and labor force participation of women increase, the gender gap in political interest should decrease. Using data from the 2000-2001 World Values Surveys14 to analyze this hypothesis, they found that the gender gap in political interest and political discussion was smallest in postindustrial countries and largest in agrarian countries.

Using Barometer surveys that cover 41 countries from Western Europe, Eastern Europe, and Latin America, Lagos and Rose (1999) found that age was not an important variable when looking at interest in politics, having a positive attitude toward democracy, or rejecting undemocratic alternatives. Instead, they found that economic status and education were positively associated with these democratic values. The only category in which age was significant was voting, which the authors felt could be attributed to life-cycle differences. However, these overall conclusions hide some of the heterogeneity found in the results from South America and Central America. Respondents in Latin America showed a lower degree of interest in politics than respondents from the established democracies in Europe (34 compared with 46 percent). In this sample of countries, age had a more significant impact: the younger the respondent, the less likely he or she was to vote, express interest in politics, express satisfaction with democracy, or be proud of his or her country.

As Lagos and Rose (1999) concluded, these results highlight the complexity of political behavior and the difficulty inherent in reducing political participation to social differences in age, education, and economic conditions. In post-Communist Europe and Latin America, the explanatory variables (age, gender, education, material prosperity, and church attendance) did not capture much significant variance in political involvement. For the

14  

Inglehart and Norris (2003) used the values of the 1998 United Nations Development Programme Human Development Index to group the 2000-2001 World Values Surveys into the following categories:

Postindustrial—Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States;

Industrial—Argentina, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile, Colombia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Republic of Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Malta, Mexico, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russian Federation, Slovakia, Slovenia, Taiwan, Turkey, Ukraine, Uruguay, Venezuela, Yugoslavia; and

Agrarian—Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, China, Dominican Republic, Egypt, El Salvador, India, Iran, Jordan, Moldova, Morocco, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Vietnam, Zimbabwe.

Suggested Citation:"6 The Transition to Citizenship." National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. 2005. Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11174.
×

Latin American countries included in the Latino-Barometer surveys, the greatest differences in political interest and participation were those between countries.

In the IEA surveys conducted in Chile and Colombia,15 17-year-olds were significantly more likely than 14-year-olds to express an interest in politics. In Chile, 46 percent of 14-year-olds said they were interested in politics, whereas in Colombia, 63 percent of students agreed with that statement (Torney-Purta, Schwille, and Amadeo, 1999). It remains unclear what generates these national differences. However, in both countries younger respondents were more likely to express interest in future participation in such activities as writing letters to newspapers, joining a political party, or running for public office. Amadeo et al. (2002) hypothesized that older students, in particular those closer in age to direct and formal political participation, are more critical of the effectiveness of such activities. When differences in political intent were found, male students were more likely than female students to expect to participate in conventional political activities (Amadeo et al., 2002).

Very little empirical research has been conducted on students’ level of civic knowledge in developing countries. The 14-year-old students in Chile and Colombia had the lowest mean scale scores of all 28 countries for “total civic knowledge.” Chile scored 88 and Colombia scored 86 compared with an international mean of 100. There were no significant gender differences. In these two countries, 75 percent of students scored below the international average for content knowledge and interpretative skills. Despite this, they had higher than average scores for conventional citizenship, expected participation in political activities, and more positive attitudes toward immigrants (Amadeo et al., 2002; Torney-Purta, Schwille, and Amadeo, 1999).

Feminist critiques of studies of political participation often note that politics is traditionally defined as a masculine activity, whereas the issues that supposedly sway women, such as the environment and health issues, are not seen as political in nature, underestimating women’s actual interest and engagement with politics (Bourque and Grossholtz, 1998). Furthermore, the gender differences shown in Table 6-3 and discussed by Inglehart and Norris (2003) may also reflect the relative political agency of women in some of these countries. If young women do not feel that they have a voice in formal political spheres, or if they are denied full representation in gov-

15  

The International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement conducted surveys among students in 28 countries. Most of the countries were in North America and Europe; Chile, and Colombia were the only developing countries sampled, and subsequent discussion of the IEA surveys is restricted to these two countries.

Suggested Citation:"6 The Transition to Citizenship." National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. 2005. Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11174.
×

erning bodies, they may not perceive their opinions to matter. Likewise, while some survey results may indicate that young people are less engaged with political issues and activities than older members of society, this may also reflect their different sphere of concerns. Groups that feel disengaged from broader political dialogues may invest their interest and attention in issues that seem to reflect self-interest or that are “close to home” (Eliasoph, 1997).

Voting Behaviors

One of the most direct activities by which a citizen living in a democracy can participate in formal politics is by voting. In literature on the United States and Europe, young people tend to be less likely to register and vote than older adults. While one hypothesis is that young people are less interested in voting, others attribute the difference to the phase of the life cycle (Lagos and Rose, 1999) or to the alternate ways of engaging with politics practiced by young people (Buckingham, 2000). Furthermore, young people are more transient than older adults—they may be living far from their home address if they have gone away to study or to work, and they may be moving more frequently. Depending on a country’s rules about voter registration, this mobility may make it difficult for them to register and vote in the appropriate district.

Because the timing of elections varies from country to country, it is difficult for comparative surveys to adequately capture recent voting behavior. For instance, the Barometer surveys gauge voting behavior by focusing on the ability of the respondent to name the party for which they would vote if an election were to be held on the next day. While examining the responses from Latin America, Lagos and Rose (1999) found that, although there are differences in the political involvement of young and older people, age alone does not predict the voting behavior.

Inglehart and Norris (2003) compared voting behaviors in each of the three development categories previously mentioned (see footnote 14) by age and sex. Although they found no evidence that the gender gap was smaller in the younger cohorts than in the older cohorts, younger respondents in the least developed countries were more likely to report voting than older respondents. They hypothesized that improvements in human capital, such as literacy, education, and exposure to the mass media, had benefited both men and women, so that even as younger women had better voting behavior than older women, the gender gap continued. Furthermore, many of the countries included in the least developed category are among the most recently emerging democracies, indicating that in areas in which the prospect of voting is new, young people may not have the same biases against participation that are found in developed countries.

Suggested Citation:"6 The Transition to Citizenship." National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. 2005. Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11174.
×
Willingness to Serve in Armed Forces

Young people in most countries surveyed by the WVS reported a high willingness to fight for their country should a war arise, as shown in Table 6-4. In almost all countries, more than two-thirds of young people said that they would be willing to fight for their country, with the value higher among young men than young women. One exception to this general pattern was Uruguay, where 41 percent of young men felt willing to fight for their country. Low willingness to fight is also notable in the high-income countries, particularly Japan, where fewer than 30 percent of young people reported willingness to fight in the event of war.16 Compared with other responses, there was also a high proportion of respondents who said they didn’t know what they would do in such a situation. Many of the countries in which young men are the most willing to fight should the need arise, such as Azerbaijan, China, the Philippines, and Turkey, are countries that have compulsory recruitment. Furthermore, these numbers may be slightly higher than if calculations were restricted to 18-24-year-olds, since older members of the 18-34 age group may have already served in their country’s armed forces.

Political Party Membership

In established and transitional democracies, political party membership is an important mechanism for political participation. Members of political parties are often directly engaged in activities that link the state to the general population, such as involvement in campaigns, signing petitions, registering new voters, and attending political rallies. Inglehart and Norris (2003) found that men were more likely than women to belong to a political party. Table 6-5 looks at membership rates for each country surveyed by the WVS. Not only are men more likely than women to belong to a political party, but also in almost every country surveyed, younger people are slightly less likely to participate than older people. However, party membership rates are strikingly low, less than 50 percent in most countries. One exception is Armenia, where party membership is compulsory.

While active party membership remains relatively low, actual party affiliation is a very salient identity issue in modern states with contested ethnic politics. In his analysis of Zambia, one researcher found that affiliation with a political party was a strong predictor of political participation, particularly in the immediate posttransition period (Bratton, 1999:570).

16  

Japan is exceptionally low, presumably because they have no standing army.

Suggested Citation:"6 The Transition to Citizenship." National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. 2005. Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11174.
×

TABLE 6-4 Percentage Willing to Fight for Country in a War, Should the Need Arise

Region and Country

Male (Ages)

Female (Ages)

18-34

35+

18-34

35+

Caribbean/Central America

Mexico

61.7

70.3

52.2

50.8

Dominican Republic

76.0

77.8

64.4

70.4

Eastern/Southern Africa

Nigeriaa

70.1

64.0

50.8

46.7

South America

Argentina

53.4

66.7

53.2

56.0

Brazil

70.9

80.0

62.8

65.3

Chile

80.3

71.7

64.4

63.1

Peru

86.8

90.9

81.0

82.3

Uruguay

40.6

54.3

42.9

47.6

Venezuela

83.8

81.0

76.8

70.5

SE/SW Asia

Bangladesh

93.0

85.1

69.6

61.2

China

93.3

90.7

87.0

85.9

Indiab

88.5

85.1

78.4

71.7

Pakistanc

n.a.

n.a.

n.a.

n.a.

Philippines

85.2

83.0

85.4

83.2

Middle East

Turkey

94.4

96.8

94.3

93.6

Former Soviet Asia

Armenia

79.5

77.6

58.0

61.5

Azerbaijan

95.2

94.1

90.9

86.0

Georgia

83.9

79.0

52.4

54.2

Developed Countries

Germany

52.5

53.2

25.5

38.4

Japan

20.1

26.2

2.1

11.6

South Korea

90.5

90.2

69.5

77.0

Spain

53.2

56.7

40.7

48.0

USA

79.8

82.0

51.6

58.0

TOTAL

78.4

78.0

52.4

57.7

aThe sample in Nigeria is restricted to urban areas.

bThe sample in India is restricted to those who are literate.

cThis question was not asked in Pakistan.

NOTE: n.a. = not available.

SOURCES: 1995-1998 World Values Surveys.

Suggested Citation:"6 The Transition to Citizenship." National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. 2005. Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11174.
×

Many transitional democracies, including Zambia, have recently emerged from situations of single-party rule. In many of these countries, new forms of party membership have found strong connections to ethnic identity. These links between political participation and identity politics become increasingly relevant to the transition to adulthood in countries in which few economic opportunities exist outside the civil service; when a single dominant political party controls access to education or employment, as for example in Cameroon (see Box 6-1), party affiliation mediates one’s inclusion or exclusion from these opportunities (Fokwang, 2003).

Youth and Elected Office

Most citizenship rights are granted at the national level, but some local governments recognize young people as civic and social participants in the community by including youth representatives in community councils and through rites of passage ceremonies that confer an adult status on young people. Initiatives that encourage local municipalities to recognize and promote children’s rights have increased with such international programs as the Child Friendly Cities program (Riggio, 2002; Riggio and Kilbane, 2000). Formally established in 2000, the program has conducted research, advocacy, and networking to promote children’s participation in governmental processes.

Local governments have effectively included young people in decision-making and planning in recent years. One example of youth participation in local governance is in Barra Mansa, Brazil, where over 6,000 young people ages 9-15 have participated in discussions and neighborhood assemblies aimed at improving city services (Guerra, 2002). In all, 18 boys and 18 girls are elected by other children to serve on the children’s council. The council meets regularly, sets priorities for needs, manages an annual budget of US$125,000, and oversees the implementation of projects—all based on the input and priorities of the children.

Young People and Activism

It is conventional wisdom that young people and students are among the most active in the general population, in organizing as well as participating in public protests and outcries against repressive governments and harsh economic policies. Although students have rarely been the primary leaders of nationalist or revolutionary movements, they have often played an influential role and have been recognized as legitimate political actors (Altbach, 1989; Braungart and Braungart, 1993; Moller, 1968). For example, Iranian young people have become extremely active in the postrevolutionary period, particularly since early 1997, taking part in presi-

Suggested Citation:"6 The Transition to Citizenship." National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. 2005. Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11174.
×

TABLE 6-5 Percentage with Political Party Membership

Region and Country

Membership Active

Membership

Male

Female

Male

Female

18-34

35+

18-34

35+

18-34

35+

18-34

35+

Caribbean/Central America

Mexico

27

29

18

21

11

11

5

9

Dominican Republic

35

42

29

39

12

22

7

13

Eastern/Southern Africa

Nigeriaa

52

40

42

34

9

11

3

4

South America

Argentina

12

15

6

8

3

4

3

2

Brazil

14

20

10

13

6

10

5

8

Chile

16

20

14

15

3

5

1

2

Colombia

13

14

10

8

6

9

4

4

Peru

16

23

11

14

2

6

1

2

Uruguay

16

20

12

13

8

7

3

5

Venezuela

14

15

12

14

4

5

3

4

SE/SW Asia

Bangladesh

33

24

10

4

24

12

4

2

China

12

24

7

10

4

11

4

4

Indiab

23

27

9

13

12

14

4

5

Pakistanc

n.a.

n.a.

n.a.

n.a.

n.a.

n.a.

n.a.

n.a.

Philippines

8

5

11

5

3

2

6

3

Suggested Citation:"6 The Transition to Citizenship." National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. 2005. Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11174.
×

Middle East

Turkey

12

20

3

3

7

13

0

2

Former Soviet Asia

Armenia

99

100

100

100

1

2

0

1

Azerbaijan

7

11

4

3

3

2

2

1

Georgia

6

4

2

5

3

3

1

2

Developed Countries

Germany

8

14

5

7

3

6

2

3

Japan

5

10

2

4

3

3

0

1

South Korea

12

15

9

11

3

5

1

2

Spain

13

7

10

6

3

2

1

1

USA

42

53

41

54

20

21

19

21

TOTAL

39

49

38

46

18

21

17

20

aThe sample in Nigeria is restricted to urban areas.

bThe sample in India is restricted to those who are literate.

cThis question was not asked in Pakistan.

NOTE: n.a. = not available.

SOURCES: 1995-1998 World Values Surveys.

Suggested Citation:"6 The Transition to Citizenship." National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. 2005. Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11174.
×

BOX 6-1
The Struggle for Citizenship in Contemporary Cameroon

Anthropologist Jude Fokwang (2003) examined the ways in which young adults in Cameroon negotiated scarce resources and opportunities to achieve full social and political citizenship. Although Cameroon has made efforts toward democratic reform, its government continues to be characterized as an ethnic oligarchy, dominated by a single political party and consistently named one of the most corrupt governments in the world.

Extensive interviews with young people in the cities of Yaounde and Buea led Fokwang to classify their strategies into three categories: (1) individuals or members of groups who saw themselves as an elite-in-the-making and characterized their transition to adult citizenship as an easy process facilitated by their connections to the ruling political party and other state institutions; (2) individuals or members of groups who chose to remain independent from party politics but were willing to use both government and private resources to achieve their goals; and (3) individuals whose transition to adult citizenship had an antistate perspective or who yearned for an alternative way to achieve adult citizenship, such as via migration.

As a case study, Fokwang offered the experience of Carlson, a graduate of the École Normale Superieur, a professional school of the University of Yaounde that prepared secondary school teachers. Although he took the public entry examinations, he was not chosen as one of 80 government candidates who would be employed by the government following graduation. Instead, he enrolled as a private candidate in the program. Despite graduating at the top of his class, Carlson was unable to secure a permanent teaching job. Unable to pay the bribes necessary to obtain a place in another training program, he remained dependent on his father for financial support and worried about his prospects for achieving full adulthood.

Even if Carlson had been a member of one of the youth associations associated with the ruling political party, there would still be no easy guarantee of the “right” connections. Although some members of youth political organizations felt that their loyalty to the government entitled them to jobs or elite education, others expressed disillusionment with the system of patronage. In this context of restricted options, the motivations and ambitions of young people were influenced by national conditions. Without sufficient social and material capital, full citizenship—conceptualized by youth as the achievement of adult responsibilities—remains elusive.

dential elections and national political movements as a unified voting bloc, as political activists, and as a newly respected political reference group (Mashayekhi, 2001). Elsewhere, Mische (1996) described the role of youth political organizations in organizing the 1992 rallies against presidential corruption in Brazil, and many credit the young people in South Africa for providing the momentum that overturned the system of apartheid (Marks, 2001). These are examples of situations in which large and diverse groups

Suggested Citation:"6 The Transition to Citizenship." National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. 2005. Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11174.
×

of young people have successfully mobilized to create a political space in which their opinions can be heard.

Further qualitative research should be conducted in different national and cultural contexts to understand how political voice and action may be manifested in different forms. For example, in the late 1980s, urban young people in Senegal protested the political system that denied them an active role in government and failed to create economic opportunities for educated young people. Groups of young people created civil society-based police forces and social services in areas in which the government was perceived as a weak actor (Diouf, 1996). This creativity was a statement against the existing distribution of power as well as an attempt to put forward an alternative. These types of locally specific actions are difficult to capture in large, cross-country surveys. Nonetheless, the surveys that are available provide valuable information about the willingness of young people to become involved in their communities and to participate in various forms of political protest.

Using 1990 WVS data, Tilley (2002) tested whether young people are beginning to share more values and attitudes across countries than they do with older generations in their own cultures, an ostensible result of globalization and the spread of postmaterialist values. He grouped countries that shared similar backgrounds and histories, creating categories he called Anglo-Saxon, Nordic, Hispanic,17 Western European, Central European, and Eastern European. Tilley found that gender and national grouping factors had a much more sizable and significant impact than age group on attitudes concerning religious beliefs, women’s roles, and life satisfaction. However, one category in which a person’s age was a better predictor than his or her nationality was willingness to participate in political activities. This included signing petitions, engaging in boycotts, attending demonstrations, taking part in strikes, or occupying buildings. Young people were found to be more likely to engage in these activities. Tilley found that the regions with the least willingness to do so were young people from South America and the formerly Communist Eastern Europe—countries with formerly repressive political regimes and perhaps weak civil societies (Tilley, 2002).

The 1995-1998 World Values Surveys show that the majority of young people expressed the intent to participate in a petition, a boycott, or a lawful demonstration (Table 6-6).18 In the majority of countries surveyed,

17  

“Hispanic” is the only category that includes developing countries; it includes Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Portugal, and Spain. Information on other developing countries was not collected until the 1995 round of the World Values Survey.

18  

Since past participation in political activity is partially dependent on the availability of opportunities to act, the table measures the intention of respondents to participate in these activities. This includes those respondents who either “have done” or “might do” each activity.

Suggested Citation:"6 The Transition to Citizenship." National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. 2005. Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11174.
×

TABLE 6-6 Percentage with Intent to Participate in Various Protest Activities (“have done” or “would do”), Respondents Ages 18-34

Region and Country

Petition

Boycott

Demonstration

More Than One

Male

Female

Male

Female

Male

Female

Male

Female

Caribbean/Central America

Mexico

76

70

42

36

54

48

61

54

Dominican Republic

74

61

30

22

75

69

69

57

Eastern/Southern Africa

Nigeriaa

43

32

45

29

58

42

48

33

South America

Argentina

69

66

16

14

52

49

50

46

Brazil

85

87

38

29

71

74

70

73

Chile

63

55

22

13

53

43

48

40

Peru

66

59

19

13

46

41

46

38

Uruguay

67

73

26

23

21

26

30

33

Venezuela

55

57

19

16

42

35

39

33

SE/SW Asia

Bangladesh

66

47

58

32

68

48

64

40

Chinac

n.a.

n.a.

n.a.

n.a.

n.a.

n.a.

n.a.

n.a.

Indiab

56

38

51

34

48

30

54

37

Pakistanc

n.a.

n.a.

n.a.

n.a.

n.a.

n.a.

n.a.

n.a.

Philippines

29

32

18

17

24

22

21

23

Suggested Citation:"6 The Transition to Citizenship." National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. 2005. Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11174.
×

Middle East

Turkey

64

50

35

19

51

28

48

26

Former Soviet Asia

Armenia

56

50

44

28

62

48

56

41

Azerbaijan

30

18

19

10

48

31

28

15

Georgia

32

35

25

21

43

43

32

33

Developed Countries

Germany

98

99

83

78

85

83

93

92

Japan

65

68

40

49

29

26

41

43

South Korea

88

89

86

78

70

57

88

81

Spain

72

65

36

27

74

67

67

61

USA

89

93

66

67

62

66

72

75

TOTAL

82

76

52

42

56

47

62

53

aThe sample in Nigeria is restricted to urban areas.

bThe sample in India is restricted to those who are literate.

cThis question was not asked in China and Pakistan.

NOTE: n.a. = not available.

SOURCE: 1995-1998 World Values Surveys.

Suggested Citation:"6 The Transition to Citizenship." National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. 2005. Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11174.
×

young people are most willing to sign a petition and least willing to engage in a boycott. This is particularly true in the South American and Central American countries and for Turkey as well, where twice as many young people are willing to sign a petition as are willing to engage in a boycott. In contrast, young people in the Asian countries are considerably less likely to report the intention to participate in any of these activities. Furthermore, young men are more willing than young women to engage in these forms of protest.

Nonetheless, even these expressions of political intent are limited. In less than half of these countries do more than 50 percent of surveyed young men intend to engage in more than one of these three political activities, and only in Brazil, the Dominican Republic, and Mexico do more than 50 percent of surveyed young women (Table 6-6). However, this should not be interpreted directly as a sign of youth apathy for political engagement. Boycotting goods and services may be a political activity, but it is closely connected to the availability of alternatives and the financial and social means to exercise choice. Likewise, participation in lawful demonstrations may be restricted by the perceived space for action in civil society and the nature of the political environment.

Inglehart and Norris (2003) broke down participation rates in political protest by national development level (see footnote 14) and birth cohort. They found that not only are respondents from developing countries less likely to have participated in protest activism, but also that there is a larger gender gap in participation than in more developed countries. Furthermore, respondents younger than 30 are less likely to have participated in protest activism than adults ages 30-59, although both of these cohorts are more likely to have engaged in protest activities than respondents ages 60 and older. To some extent, the difference between the two younger adult cohorts may be attributed to the fact that older adults have had more years to engage in protest activities. More interestingly, once such characteristics as education, class, age, union membership, and religiosity are included in the analysis, gender does not have a significant impact on the rate of participation in protest activism. Therefore, Inglehart and Norris conclude that as women have greater opportunities to continue their education and enter the labor force, they may become more likely to participate in protest activities.

The IEA studies also asked students if they would participate in various protest activities. Students from Chile and Colombia were much more likely to expect to participate in such political activities as collecting money for a social cause, collecting signatures for a petition, and participating in a protest march than their counterparts from Western and Eastern Europe. For example, while 83 percent of upper secondary students surveyed in Chile expected to collect money for a social cause, the international mean

Suggested Citation:"6 The Transition to Citizenship." National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. 2005. Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11174.
×

for the entire sample was only 55 percent.19 Similarly, 77 percent of 14-year-olds and 78 percent of 17-year-olds in Chile said they would probably or definitely collect signatures for a petition, whereas these percentages were 43 and 42 percent, respectively, for the international sample. While older respondents were willing to engage in traditional political activities, they expressed greater interest in engaging in activities that had a direct impact on the community (Amadeo et al., 2002).

In the IEA study of 14-year-olds, students in all countries were much more likely to report expecting to engage in activities like collecting money (59 percent) or signing petitions (45 percent) than they were to participate in more confrontational activities like blocking traffic (15 percent) or occupying buildings (14 percent). Significant gender differences emerged—girls were more likely to expect to collect money for a social cause, whereas boys were more likely to expect to participate in a march, spray-paint protest slogans, block traffic, or occupy buildings. There were no significant gender differences for collecting signatures for a petition (Amadeo et al., 2002).

Nonetheless, these surveys provide little information about the issues that drive young people’s participation in formal politics, community organizing, and forms of protest. There has been some investigation of new types of organizing that are occurring in the context of globalization. These include growing international networks that form around issues ranging from labor rights, trade policies, environmental protection, and reproductive health to shared tastes in music. This new form of organization takes place in a context in which advances in information technology and travel, as well as the rise in a global human rights platform, have facilitated participation in transnational social movements (Keck and Sikkink, 1998). Young people are also more likely than older adults to use the Internet and recent communication technologies (Suoranta, 2003); research is needed to understand how the methods and goals of youth activists differ from the protest activities of older adults and from the practices of young people in the past.

Young People and Civic Participation

Research on social capital and organizational membership suggests that participating in voluntary groups is associated with access to information, economic and political resources, and social support (Putnam, 2000; Putnam, Leonardi, and Nanetti, 1993; van Deth et al., 1999). Involvement in civic organizations provides young people with the opportunity to ex-

19  

The international mean of the IEA study of 17-year-olds is based on results from Chile, Colombia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Israel, Latvia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Slovenia, Sweden, and Switzerland.

Suggested Citation:"6 The Transition to Citizenship." National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. 2005. Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11174.
×

pand their social connections outside the home and develop new skills. Longitudinal research in the United States has started to identify linkages between participation in civic activities as a youth and leadership and involvement as an adult; these trajectories are especially strong for young women (Damico, Damico, and Conway, 1998; Hart, Atkins, and Ford, 1998; Verba, Schlozman, and Brady, 1995; Youniss, McLellan, and Yates, 1997).

The World Values Surveys asked participants whether they were active members of religious organizations, sports organizations, arts organizations, unions, political parties, environmental groups, professional organizations, charity organizations, or other organizations. According to the WVS, the greatest participation rates for young adults were consistently found in religious, sports, and arts or educational organizations (Table 6-7). Participation rates in unions, political parties, environmental organizations, professional organizations, charities, and other organizations were between 5 and 10 percent, whereas participation rates in church, sports, and art organizations were nearly double that. Young men were more likely than young women to participate in most organizations, with the exception of church organizations and charities. Young people (both boys and girls) are also more likely than older adults to participate in sports, arts, and environmental organizations and less likely to participate in church organizations and charities. Participation in unions, political parties, and professional organizations appears to be more closely related to gender than age. However, it is worth noting that the World Values Surveys do not collect information on participation in organizations more specific to certain regional contexts, such as self-help associations (e.g., savings associations, burial associations, neighborhood watch) or groups concerned with local matters (e.g., school or housing associations). While the inclusion of these categories may complicate cross-national comparisons, it might more closely capture the extent of community involvement.

The UNICEF Young Voices Surveys asked young people whether they belonged to at least one organized group, club, or association. In the overall findings for Europe and Central Asia, while there were no large gender or socioeconomic differences, younger adolescents ages 9-13 (48 percent) were more likely to be involved than older adolescents ages 14-17 (38 percent), probably because they are more likely to be enrolled in school, where some of these activities take place. Of the children in Central Asian countries who were polled, 37 percent reported belonging to a group or club (UNICEF, 2001a:77).20 In Latin America and the Caribbean, a total of 52 percent

20  

The countries polled included Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Data on individual countries in Central Asia were not available.

Suggested Citation:"6 The Transition to Citizenship." National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. 2005. Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11174.
×

reported belonging to some organized peer group, with those in the Caribbean reporting the highest participation (70 percent). And 31 percent reported participating in a sports group, 16 percent reported belonging to a religious group, and 8 percent reported belonging to an artistic association (UNICEF, 2000:109). The breakdown by country for Latin America and the Caribbean is shown in Table 6-8. More informal types of participation, including playing sports informally with friends and other neighborhood children, are unlikely to be included in these data, but it is likely to be the more formal activities that cultivate social and leadership skills and the inclination to become active in other aspects of the community.

The levels of participation in various community organizations and activities provide some insight into the level of connectedness that young people may feel to their community, as well as the likelihood of some positive socialization experience through interaction with peers, adults outside the nuclear or extended family, and exposure to new ideas and opportunities. These extrafamilial social networks may mediate access to the resources, opportunities, and aspirations that young people utilize as they assume more adult roles and responsibilities. Therefore, associational membership serves as one indicator of a young person’s social capital.

However, not all associations foster a young person’s prosocial development. Negative social capital may be carried in associations that exclude outsiders, place excessive claims on group members, restrict individual freedoms, and exercise downward leveling norms (Portes, 1998), such as youth involvement in gang activity. In Nicaragua, young men formed street gangs in reaction to the anarchic conditions during the transition from war to peace during the late 1980s and early 1990s. These gangs, or pandillas, were loyal to their neighborhoods and helped maintain peaceful conditions in their home territory, while practicing low-level violence and petty crime elsewhere. However, as Nicaragua was drawn into the drug trade, the gang members became both consumers and dealers of such drugs as crack cocaine. As the revenue from gang activities has increased, security in communities formerly protected by the pandillas has decreased (Rodgers, 2002).

The existence of the gangs was a manifestation of the tension between an effort to build a social structure and the struggle to take advantage of economic opportunities, especially those that exist outside the formal market. While the activities and structure of youth gangs vary widely, they are inherently a distinct social group recognized by the community, bound together by shared values, and collectively associated with illegal activities (Moser and van Bronkhorst, 1999; Pattillo, 1998). While violence and gang activity are associated with high levels of income inequality (Lederman and Loayza, 1999), relative poverty is not a sufficient factor; involvement is also predicated on the availability of free unstructured time.

Participation in social organizations that build positive social capital

Suggested Citation:"6 The Transition to Citizenship." National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. 2005. Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11174.
×

TABLE 6-7 Percentage with Membership in Selected Organizations

Region and Country

Church/Religious

Male

Female

18-34

35+

18-34

35+

Caribbean/Central America

Mexico

67

71

73

70

Dominican Republic

65

72

79

81

Eastern/Southern Africa

Nigeriaa

55

74

60

72

South America

Argentina

28

30

31

42

Brazil

50

61

61

75

Chile

46

55

60

69

Peru

52

59

54

61

Uruguay

22

26

28

48

Venezuela

42

40

46

50

SE/SW Asia

Bangladesh

41

58

12

13

Chinac

n.a.

n.a.

n.a.

n.a.

Indiab

28

34

20

29

Pakistanc

n.a.

n.a.

n.a.

n.a.

Philippines

25

25

22

21

Middle East

Turkey

3

7

2

2

Former Soviet Asia

Armenia

96

93

97

97

Azerbaijan

5

6

3

3

Georgia

10

7

10

8

Developed Countries

Germany

46

44

57

57

Japan

7

11

14

14

South Korea

38

39

47

63

Spain

39

37

44

50

USA

68

74

77

84

aThe sample in Nigeria is restricted to urban areas.

bThe sample in India is restricted to those who are literate.

cThis question was not asked in China and Pakistan.

NOTE: n.a. = not available.

SOURCE: 1995-1998 World Values Surveys.

Suggested Citation:"6 The Transition to Citizenship." National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. 2005. Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11174.
×

Sports/Recreation

Arts/Education

Male

Female

Male

Female

18-34

35+

18-34

35+

18-34

35+

18-34

35+

54

51

43

35

42

40

43

31

52

42

36

32

39

30

42

40

75

52

54

36

66

41

54

38

27

18

16

7

19

11

20

12

45

26

20

12

21

19

15

18

56

43

29

19

32

26

29

29

46

34

28

20

29

23

24

20

32

21

20

9

22

14

28

14

43

30

26

18

29

20

23

15

47

26

14

9

27

22

21

18

22

13

22

9

15

10

16

8

36

20

14

10

30

17

20

18

n.a.

n.a.

n.a.

n.a.

0

0

0

0

16

18

15

16

11

12

11

8

14

7

2

1

3

4

3

2

99

99

100

100

99

100

100

100

15

5

7

3

7

5

14

6

18

5

6

2

11

7

17

8

55

44

52

42

12

19

19

22

20

25

16

19

5

12

9

19

66

48

48

36

45

28

45

28

41

17

22

11

22

12

22

8

57

42

50

34

42

34

49

37

Suggested Citation:"6 The Transition to Citizenship." National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. 2005. Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11174.
×

TABLE 6-8 Percentage of Young People Who Participate in Various Activities

Region and Country

Sports

Religious

Artistic

None

South America

Argentina

35

12

7

50

Bolivia

35

13

14

44

Brazil

27

20

6

51

Chile

28

18

10

43

Colombia

34

12

14

46

Ecuador

26

12

5

57

Guyana

26

34

9

36

Peru

34

12

9

46

Uruguay

32

9

8

47

Venezuela

33

8

9

50

Caribbean/Central America

Barbados

46

33

18

16

Dominican Republic

27

17

4

42

El Salvador

47

13

4

33

Haiti

48

27

4

21

Honduras

32

28

3

34

Guatemala

34

23

5

48

Jamaica

42

14

15

32

Mexico

33

15

7

48

Nicaragua

24

8

6

59

Panama

26

21

14

45

SOURCE: UNICEF (2000:110).

and enhance capabilities and self-esteem, as well as involvement in more negative activities, are highly mediated by the amount of leisure time that a young person has available to spend on activities in the community. Recent cross-national studies of time use among young people have found that boys have more leisure time than girls; as discussed in Chapter 5, when noneconomic household work (or domestic chores) are included in the equation, young women spend more hours each day working than young men, leaving less time to cultivate social networks or to participate in community organizations (Larson and Verma, 1999; Ritchie, Lloyd, and Grant, 2004). When young people are still enrolled in school, they spend more hours per day in structured activities. After-school programs that lengthen the school day—such as the Program for the Eradication of Child Labor in Brazil, discussed in Chapter 5—not only reduce child labor, but also increase the amount of supervised time that can be used to build prosocial values.

Suggested Citation:"6 The Transition to Citizenship." National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. 2005. Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11174.
×
Young People and Social Inclusion

The concept of citizenship encompasses much more than just a narrowly defined relationship between individuals and the state. As discussed in the previous section, social capital and the strength of the civic environment mediate the transition to adult citizenship. The opportunities for participation that young people experience in their community are instrumental to their development and the types of transitions they make to adulthood. Correspondingly, young people who do not have such opportunities may be more likely to feel alienated, to have a sense of hopelessness, and to engage in high-risk or antisocial behavior (Resnick, 2000). In this section we review research on the ways in which young people engage with their environments, as well as some of the antisocial responses that can occur when formal social, economic, and political structures fail to provide sufficient opportunities and support.

Citizenship implies access to and inclusion in community resources and social networks—these in turn can be protective against involvement in high-risk economic and social activities. Supportive environments for youth development are enhanced by access to functional social systems (such as education and labor markets), compensatory social policies to combat economic polarization, shared values and norms, stable social memberships, and wide participation in social life (Tienda and Wilson, 2002). Young people living in urban slums or poor rural areas may not be in surroundings conducive to creating a sense of community, well-being, or safety. While socioeconomic status informs the existence and quality of citizenship opportunities, social inclusion in one’s physical environment often mediates the impact of those limitations. The level of safety that young people feel in their community may facilitate or inhibit their ability to participate in activities like sports, after-school clubs, or other civic activities, and the care and upkeep of neighborhood homes and businesses may create an environment that discourages illicit activity (Cohen et al., 2000). This may be particularly the case for young women who fear sexual harassment or for young people who live in areas of armed conflict. Young people who live in areas of high gang activity may be coerced into active or passive participation in gang politics.

An emerging literature in the United States has pointed out the linkages between the connectedness of young people in their communities and risk-taking behaviors (Brooks-Gunn, 1993; Jessor, Turbin, and Costa, 1998a, 1998b; Kirby, 1999; Resnick et al., 1997). Community connectedness has been found to be inversely associated with behaviors like smoking, drug use, and high-risk sex. Studies attempt to capture the level of connectedness by using such measures as perceptions of cohesion and cooperation in communities as well as the presence of community groups and activities for

Suggested Citation:"6 The Transition to Citizenship." National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. 2005. Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11174.
×

young people. They also ask who the respondent feels close to and who they trust the most. They may also ask about an individual’s feelings of safety in the neighborhood and the presence of gangs.

In a study on young people ages 14-22 living in the context of HIV/AIDS in South Africa, investigators looked at the community factors that may affect sexual behavior and choices (Hallman and Diers, 2004; Rutenberg et al., 2001). Interviewers assessed community characteristics, including physical infrastructure and perceptions of safety. The preliminary results found significant gender differences in the levels of comfort that men and young women felt. Young men had higher degrees of social inclusion, as they often had more friends and felt safe in their neighborhood. They seem to have a greater connection to their community than young women; they were more likely to report help and trust among community members and to have many friends, and less likely to say that they would feel happier if they lived in another community. Results from the same study found that social isolation was associated with higher risk of early sexual debut among boys and girls, and with greater risk of coercive or economically motivated sexual encounters and lower negotiating power in sexual relationships for girls only.

Trust in institutions is an indicator often used in public opinion surveys for assessing individuals’ sense of security and faith in their society. The World Values Survey included this topic in its investigations. Results demonstrate that religious institutions consistently topped the list as the most trusted institutions among young adults ages 18-34, with more than 70 percent of respondents in most countries expressing “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence. However, trust in all other institutions varies widely from country to country, with trust in the police and national government consistently low (Table 6-9). The incidence of political repression and corruption in a country’s history undoubtedly has a strong affect on these variations. These findings were corroborated in a study of 17-year-olds in 16 countries conducted by the IEA. This survey found that, for all countries, young people trusted government institutions less than they trusted the media. In particular, 17-year-olds had less trust for the government than did 14-year-olds (Amadeo et al., 2002:7).

These patterns of higher trust in community and religious institutions compared with low trust in governmental bodies and officials were also evident in the younger group of adolescents (ages 9-17) interviewed in the UNICEF Young Voices Surveys. Questions about trust were asked in the surveys conducted in Central Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean. In all of the Central and Eastern Europe/Commonwealth of Independent States and Baltic States polled, 56 percent trusted the army, 55 percent trusted the church and religious authorities, 47 percent trusted the police, 40 percent trusted the president or other head of state, and 30 percent trusted the

Suggested Citation:"6 The Transition to Citizenship." National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. 2005. Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11174.
×

government. These levels did not vary by gender but did decrease with age. For example 62 percent of 9-13-year-olds expressed trust in the police compared with 45 percent of 14-17-year-olds (UNICEF, 2001b:65).21 Older respondents may have had greater interaction with these institutions than younger respondents, and these experiences may shape the level of trust that they express.

The Young Voices Surveys in Latin America and the Caribbean also asked adolescents about their trust in adults and social institutions, including parents, teachers, the church, the mayor, the government, and the president. Young people trust their mothers (94 percent) and their fathers (90 percent) the most; 85 percent of respondents reported trusting the church. Teachers were trustworthy for 79 percent, but this confidence waned among older adolescents (64 percent) and children from poorer households (68 percent). As with the results from other surveys, adolescents had the least trust in government institutions and their representatives: 38 percent reported trust in the mayor, 36 percent in the president, and 32 percent in the government (UNICEF, 2000:115).22

Some researchers hypothesize that confidence in political institutions is declining. Comparisons between the 1981 and 1991 World Values Surveys shows a decrease in confidence in public institutions (but not private ones) in many countries23 (Newton and Norris, 2000). However, this may be due to the poor performance of governments in these countries (Putnam, Pharr, and Dalton, 2000; Torney-Purta, Schwille, and Amadeo, 1999). Trust in institutions is important to examine further, especially to understand how it affects whether young people feel that they can make an impact on their environment or government and whether they decide to get involved as active citizens, as well as to measure the performance of these institutions.

As described above, the social environment of the community may be associated with the risk behaviors that young people engage in. However, opportunities for connection to social institutions trusted by young people may provide positive alternatives to risk behavior. Beckerleg (1995) documents how young people in a coastal Kenyan town turned to a new Islamic movement as a positive alternative to the disintegration of the Swahili

21  

These data were not disaggregated by country in the final report, so this total figure reflects not only the countries of Central Asia and the Caucasus, but also Eastern Europe and the Baltic States.

22  

Results that are presented as regional averages have been weighted to accurately represent the proportion of each nation’s youth population in the region.

23  

The early rounds of the World Values Surveys conducted in 1981 and 1991 were restricted mainly to developed countries; Argentina, Mexico, and South Africa were the only developing countries surveyed in both rounds.

Suggested Citation:"6 The Transition to Citizenship." National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. 2005. Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11174.
×

TABLE 6-9 Percentage of Respondents with Trust in Various Institutions (“a great deal” or “quite a lot”), Ages 18-34

Region and Country

Church

Legal System

Male

Female

Male

Female

Caribbean/Central America

Mexico

68

79

41

39

Dominican Republic

70

71

23

12

Eastern/Southern Africa

Nigeriaa

81

87

55

54

South America

Argentina

38

44

21

24

Brazil

71

75

51

51

Chile

72

80

38

41

Peru

61

72

20

16

Uruguay

49

48

50

47

Venezuela

72

75

37

36

SE/SW Asia

Bangladesh

97

98

73

71

Chinab

n.a.

n.a.

n.a.

n.a.

Indiac

60

63

75

68

Pakistan

80

82

40

64

Philippines

94

95

66

68

Middle East

Turkey

69

69

64

77

Former Soviet Asia

Armenia

60

71

26

32

Azerbaijan

63

65

53

42

Georgia

70

80

41

38

Developed Countries

Germany

21

29

56

55

Japan

10

10

73

63

South Korea

39

45

51

53

Spain

32

38

41

34

USA

60

78

38

38

aThe sample in Nigeria is restricted to urban areas.

bThis question was not asked in China.

cThe sample in India is restricted to those who are literate.

NOTE: n.a. = not available.

SOURCE: 1995-1998 World Values Surveys.

Suggested Citation:"6 The Transition to Citizenship." National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. 2005. Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11174.
×

Press

National Government

Civil Service

Police

Male

Female

Male

Female

Male

Female

Male

Female

51

50

41

41

44

40

32

35

35

32

18

8

11

8

14

10

64

57

16

18

66

61

36

39

28

39

25

18

8

6

21

15

64

59

42

42

62

59

43

41

50

51

50

45

41

41

44

48

26

29

40

35

11

8

22

24

56

58

29

33

31

42

37

49

58

63

28

24

29

32

30

25

67

66

78

77

75

69

36

32

n.a.

n.a.

n.a.

n.a.

n.a.

n.a.

n.a.

n.a.

58

50

54

51

61

53

41

37

54

61

0

0

47

54

9

27

73

72

55

61

68

68

58

58

44

50

45

54

61

71

65

76

33

38

42

42

32

38

30

31

40

27

87

86

39

39

44

39

60

54

45

39

44

43

31

33

26

21

24

15

34

41

62

62

73

72

17

18

24

24

70

80

58

65

34

38

83

83

38

43

47

40

22

21

34

38

60

52

26

25

30

34

50

48

67

70

Suggested Citation:"6 The Transition to Citizenship." National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. 2005. Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11174.
×

BOX 6-2
Young Men and Pentecostalism in Tanzania

As one of the fastest growing cities in Africa, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, has a large youth population, including rural migrants and refugees from neighboring war-torn countries, including Burundi. Most of these young people operate in the informal economy, outside official state sanctions and within the bounds of an urban youth culture defined by heightened alertness, secret codes, and a celebration of their outcast status. However, anthropologist Marc Sommers (2003) found hidden in this environment a community of young, male Burundi refugees who used their connections to Pentecostalism to leave the refugee settlement camps and find a livelihood in the city.

Strong connections between Pentecostal congregations in the refugee settlement camps and in Dar es Salaam provided a social network that young people can use to migrate to the city. Pentecostal traders recruited young men from the settlements to work for them in exchange for providing protection and guidance in the city. Sommers (2003) found that once in the city, most Burundi refugees chose to keep circumspect lives. Not only were they living illegally outside the official refugee settlements, but also many were ethnic Hutus driven by the fear of the genocide carried out by Burundian Tutsis in the early 1970s. Although few of the young people had ever seen a Tutsi, they restricted their friendships to one or two refugees who could be trusted.

Since young refugee migrants maintained narrow social networks, their connections to Pentecostalism took on increased importance. Nearly all members of the Burundi refugee community in Dar es Salaam attended Pentecostal churches, and each church community provided an atmosphere in which refugees could relax. New migrants were taught how to avoid trouble, and young people were provided with an alternative to violence. Sommers (2003) found that Pentecostalism targeted and accommodated the needs of young refugees, providing a stable point attractive to young people alienated from the state and with few viable life choices available. Although his ethnography identified the survival strategies used by young male Burundi refugees, Sommers recognized young urban migrants as a particularly understudied group, in particular their changing sociocultural roles in the current war and postwar context of many African countries.

community and the increase in local drug use driven by the local tourist economy. The high trust that young people have in religious institutions may indicate their potential use by young people to negotiate social disorder. Box 6-2 describes how young urban migrants used their connections to Pentecostalism to forge positive social networks following their arrival in the city.

Elsewhere, others have concluded that low trust in the effectiveness of the police and the justice system lead to alternative, and often violent, forms of justice and conflict resolution among young people (Noronha et al., 1999; Aitchinson, 1998, as cited in World Health Organization, 2002). In settings in which the police have little control over everyday violence and

Suggested Citation:"6 The Transition to Citizenship." National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. 2005. Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11174.
×

may be perpetrators of violence themselves, marginalized young people may have few disincentives to the use of violence or petty crime to overcome their lack of social and economic opportunity. During the political and economic unrest in Senegal in the late 1980s, groups of young people formed patrols to replace the weakly functioning police force; although these groups walked the fine line of peacekeeping and vigilante justice, they represented a local response to the existing disorder (Diouf, 1996).

Results described in this section point to the large-scale disillusionment and lack of confidence on the part of young people toward formal government institutions and political participation. However, there is also evidence of higher levels of trust in community organizations and religious institutions. Together, the data in the previous sections suggest that the civic participation and engagement of young people are more active at the local level, although some young people express interest and participate in national-level political and social activities. Citizenship is thus also about a young person’s socialization in a community and multiple social environments. Those who have the opportunities to participate in activities outside the home and the freedom to have a voice, interact with others, and develop leadership skills may be able to have a healthier transition to adulthood.

THE FORMATION OF CITIZENSHIP

What types of institutions and processes contribute in a positive way to the formation of citizenship during adolescence? A broad range of institutional forces shape the formation of citizenship in addition to the formal legal structures previously discussed. These include the formal schooling system, the military or national service, the workplace, civil society and NGOs, and the media. Each of these institutions is also responding to as well as contributing to the global changes discussed in Chapter 2. Each of these is briefly discussed below.

Role of Formal Schooling

Literacy is one of the most powerful skills that school imparts to young people. The ability to read and write in a commonly written and spoken language, as well as the development of critical analytic skills, an expanded vocabulary, and the mastery of abstract concepts that come with sustained schooling, provides young people with important tools for participating in a changing society.

Those without a basic quality education face multiple barriers in terms of employment, access to health care, and the confidence and ability to fully participate in other activities. Furthermore, education is implicitly a political process (Freire, 2002 [1970]), guided both by national education poli-

Suggested Citation:"6 The Transition to Citizenship." National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. 2005. Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11174.
×

cies that may change frequently, as government power shifts between political parties, and by the agenda that designs and interprets the content of the curriculum.

The Convention on the Rights of the Child enshrines the right to education in Articles 28 and 29. The language of these articles acknowledges that the opportunity to go to school offers children and adolescents not only academic knowledge, but also core skills that will help them be effective and active community participants. This includes (United Nations, 1989) the “development of respect for the child’s parents, his or her own cultural identity, language and values, for the national values of the country in which the child is living, the country from which he or she may originate, and for civilizations different from his or her own…. The preparation of the child for responsible life in a free society, in the spirit of understanding, peace, tolerance, equality of sexes, and friendship among all peoples, ethnic, national and religious groups and persons of indigenous origin.”

As reflected in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, public schooling typically has multiple goals. In addition to instilling literacy and mathematical skills in young people, public education’s goals include fostering a national identity, inculcating a shared history, and promoting cohesion between the diverse constituencies within one geographic boundary. The skills, knowledge, and experiences provided contribute to enabling young people to actively participate in society (Fagerlind and Saha, 1989; Wolpe, 1994). Furthermore, formal schooling also provides a setting in which young people can interact with each other and get involved in new activities. Programs beyond the academic core curriculum, such as school-based sports and drama programs can also increase the social skills and networks of young people. Attending school may be particularly empowering for girls and poor adolescents who have few other opportunities to develop leadership skills and social and economic mobility.

There is a movement in the development field to acknowledge and promote the positive socialization and citizenship-building aspects of formal education. Proponents of this aspect of schooling have been extremely critical of the exclusive focus of recent school reform efforts on the acquisition of human capital to the exclusion of other aspects of education that promote social capital, nationalistic belief systems, and citizenship (Carnoy, 2000; Morrow and Torres, 2000). These critics argue that education has become merely an ingredient in development and a means for integration into a Western-dominated global market. As a result, there have been very little curriculum development and teacher training in school reform efforts to promote civic knowledge and activity.

Nonetheless, all government schools, whether pre- or postreform, teach students about their country, its culture, its history, and its government. Furthermore, many schools offer special programs and curricula designed

Suggested Citation:"6 The Transition to Citizenship." National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. 2005. Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11174.
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to address civic knowledge, life skills, and human rights. Some schools may also provide opportunities for students for leadership training through systems of student governance, require community service from students, or host special programs on current social and political topics.

The International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement has conducted tests of students’ civic knowledge, attitudes, and practices with respect to citizenship in 28 countries; although most of these surveys were conducted in developed nations, Chile and Colombia were included. In general, students express the view that schools that model democratic practices are the most effective in promoting civic knowledge and engagement. The majority of students in Chile and Colombia “agreed” or “strongly agreed” that school helped them to learn to cooperate with other students, understand people who have different ideas, and protect the environment (89-96 percent). Schools also taught them to care about what happens in different countries, to contribute to community problem solving, to be a patriotic and loyal citizen, and to consider that voting is important (Amadeo et al., 2002; Torney-Purta, Schwille, and Amadeo, 1999).

Schools are, however, a site for both learning and conflict, for socialization and exclusion. The language of instruction, the messages and values conveyed in the text books, and the attitudes and behavior of school principals and teachers in the school toward their students all have an impact on young people’s sense of belonging, their integration with peers, and the type of civic identity they assume. A school with an authoritarian teaching style may foster civic attitudes and behavior different from those of a school that involves students in decision making, such as through student councils and teacher-student associations. Even when a national curriculum for civic education is defined, the context of the school environment filters the lessons in particular ways. For instance, in Thailand all secondary schools are mandated to develop students’ good citizenship and to teach young people to live in society with peace and harmony. However, Pitiyanuwat and Sujiva’s in-depth case study of three schools (2001) shows that these themes were open to interpretation. While all schools stressed the importance of morality, the public school emphasized order, discipline, and social development, the private religious school focused on religious conduct, and the university model school stressed critical thinking and intellectual activity.

Experiences in school can contribute to the development of a sense of agency and leadership skills, or alternatively can reinforce a sense of marginalization. Conflicts with school culture are perhaps stronger among young people coming from social classes that are economically and culturally subordinated (Tenti, 2000). Students from minority or otherwise marginalized groups begin school at a disadvantage to other privileged groups and must work harder to gain the skills and social knowledge to operate effectively in the school environment. Furthermore, poor students

Suggested Citation:"6 The Transition to Citizenship." National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. 2005. Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11174.
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may be less likely to attend schools with good quality of instruction or with the resources for extracurricular activities or sports facilities.

Nonformal Programs for the Formation of Citizenship

The public education system is not the only institution providing civic education. Increasingly, foreign donors and local community organizations create their own programs to promote understanding of democracy, encourage community participation, and create social capital in communities. However, programs targeted at young people have traditionally been school-based, such as those discussed previously. Nonschool-based programs either have focused implicitly on adults or have attempted to draw the most vulnerable young people, such as street children and child prostitutes, back into mainstream social activities (Finkel, 2002; Rizzini, Barker, and Cassaniga, 2002). Even when these programs do exist, there are few published evaluations that provide the controls and statistical rigor necessary to measure the impact of the intervention and remove potential biases.

Analysis of nonschool-based programs is further complicated by the fact that few analyses of adult civic education projects provide information about the ages of adult respondents. Given that the age of majority is 18 in most countries, it is likely that these programs included both younger and older adults. Although the needs of adolescents are very different from those of young adults past the age of majority, adult civic education programs provide important information regarding methods for drawing younger adults into formal political participation.

Bratton and colleagues (1999) looked at the effects on political culture of civics programs conducted by NGOs in Zambia, including street shows conducted by the Foundation for Democratic Process and voter registration and turnout programs administered by the Civic Action Fund. In addition to these specific civic education campaigns, the government supported radio broadcasts that encouraged citizens to register and vote, to refrain from violence, and to serve as democratic role models for the country’s school-children (Bratton et al., 1999). Using a national sample of registered voters as a control group, they were able to partially account for possible biases related to self-selection into the civic education programs.

Among their findings was that civic education programs had more influence on civic knowledge than on behavior, and that the impact was mediated by the educational attainment of the respondent. For respondents with no education and no access to the mass media, exposure to the civic education programs had no impact on civic knowledge or behavior. However, among respondents who had more than eight years of education and regular radio access, the civic education programs increased the likelihood that the respondent could identify their political representatives, express

Suggested Citation:"6 The Transition to Citizenship." National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. 2005. Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11174.
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tolerant values, and participate in key democratic actions, such as voting in elections (Bratton et al., 1999). These results indicate that those who were more educated or better informed may have been more receptive to the program messages.

In a separate study, Finkel (2002) examined several civic education programs supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development in the Dominican Republic and South Africa. The key outcomes of political participation included taking part in an organized community problem-solving activity, attending a local government meeting, working on an election campaign, and contacting a local elected official. Given that participation in the civic education programs may be associated with an individual’s predisposition toward democracy, the motivation to succeed in a democratic society, or the need for sociability, Finkel took account of these self-selection biases using Heckman regression models that controlled for group memberships, political interest, media use, and past voting behavior.

Participation in democracy training had significant effects on local-level participation in four of the seven programs evaluated. However, the strength of the effect varied depending on the length and intensity of the exposure, the extent of the focus on fostering participation, the extent to which the training was participatory, and the level of each individual’s prior participatory resources. In no situation was age significant, implying that these programs were just as effective in delivering the message to young adults and newly eligible voters as it was to older adults (Finkel, 2002).

The evaluation of these programs (U.S. Agency for International Development, 2002) observed that program participants had decreased trust in public and government institutions relative to nonparticipants. These differences were associated with an increased knowledge about local government. Whereas decreases in institutional trust have elsewhere been hypothesized as detrimental to civic participation (e.g., Putnam, 2000), in these contexts it appeared that decreased trust was relative to an increased awareness of local corruption and a better understanding of how government should function. Furthermore, there was less trust in the nondemocratic arms of the state, such as the police and the military, than there was for elected officials (Finkel and Sabatini, 2000; U.S. Agency for International Development, 2002). Further research is required to examine under what conditions low levels of institutional trust encourage active citizenship and protest, and under what conditions apathy and a sense of ineffectiveness are fostered. Also, this type of analysis should compare the different outcomes of civic education programs in countries with effective governments and those with corrupt bureaucracies.

While these programs have focused on building knowledge of government and encouraging participation in elections and political processes, their target has often been restricted to citizens of voting age. For younger

Suggested Citation:"6 The Transition to Citizenship." National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. 2005. Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11174.
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citizens, especially adolescents who have not yet reached the age of majority, a focus on civic knowledge may be less important than fostering an ethic of civic responsibility and participation. In developed countries, many programs, both school-based and nonschool-based, have encouraged youth volunteerism as a path to future political engagement (Flanagan et al., 1998; Pancer and Pratt, 1999; Roker, Player, and Coleman, 1999; Yates, 1999).

Although volunteerism is often grounded in Western attitudes toward the individual and the responsibilities of the state, some youth programs have attempted to encourage community participation by directly engaging young people in service projects. One example is the set of programs known as Public Achievement, which were first developed in the United States and then adapted to several developing country contexts. While this program is very well grounded and tested at its sites in the United States, most of the projects in developing countries are still in the pilot stage. The first generation of programs in Palestine created 14 groups of young men and women ages 14-17. In each group, an older mentor used games and discussion to help the participants identify problems in their community and brainstorm practical solutions for these problems. Although not all projects were successfully implemented, almost all participants reported an improvement in their ability to analyze local problems and their confidence to pursue their goals (Davis, 2004). The evaluation of this pilot phase found that the success of the program was augmented by the participation of parents and community members in the program development.

Elsewhere, Rhodes, Mihyar, and El-Rous (2002) spent four years following the young male participants in a separate pilot project in Jordan. This intervention worked with community leaders and parents in periurban areas of Amman to create more youth-friendly neighborhoods, working directly with young men ages 6-14 to develop prosocial values and capabilities and to create safe spaces. By working closely with both young people and communities, the program reshaped the social terrain in which young men developed. Whereas young people had previously formed networks and gangs on the street, turning to violence to resolve issues, the program created community centers with computers in which boys could safely meet, conducted summer camps in which the boys received counseling on peaceful conflict resolution, and forged connections to a national youth organization to provide vocational training for young community residents (Rhodes, Mihyar, and El-Rous, 2002).

Beyond the content of these interventions, these two programs brought young people together in an environment in which they could gain confidence and self-esteem, create peer groups and connections with other young people from inside and outside their immediate community, and have access to mentors who provided counseling and guidance separate from fam-

Suggested Citation:"6 The Transition to Citizenship." National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. 2005. Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11174.
×

ily expectations and obligations. These aspects are shared by a broader set of interventions in the development community that focus on building the livelihoods of adolescents and young adults (Kobayashi, 2004; Population Council and UNICEF, 2003; Population Council and International Center for Research on Women, 2000). The livelihoods approach attempts to expand the capabilities of young people and to create resources and opportunities that make it easier for young people to act on their skills.

While the content of livelihoods programs vary, the greatest emphasis is placed on building economic skills, developing and maintaining positive social relationships, and fostering the ability of young people to exercise critical thinking and have a stake in the negotiation and decision-making that directly affect their lives. Policies and programs are developed in a context sensitive to the status and vulnerabilities of young people during their transition into adulthood. Particular attention is paid to developing social networks of peers, which young people can turn to for social support at future points in their life. This is particularly relevant to young women, because emphasis is placed on increasing community acceptance of female mobility and creating acceptable social connections outside the family (Population Council and International Center for Research on Women, 2000). Altogether, this approach to developing the capacities of young people has great promise for creating spaces in which young people can participate more fully in their communities.

Participation in sports is another excellent way for young people to form peer networks, learn teamwork skills, and exercise leadership. These qualities help prepare them to participate actively in other civic, employment, and social activities. Participation in sports can be especially beneficial for girls, who may not have other opportunities for organized recreation. It also gives them an opportunity to cultivate self-esteem that is based on traits that fall outside traditional gender roles that emphasize beauty, passivity, and domesticity (Brady, 1998). Box 6-3 describes the impact that a sports program had on the self-efficacy of adolescent girls in Kenya.

There has been relatively little research into the impact of sports on the social development of young people in either developed or developing countries. Research from the United States suggests that participation in organized sports may have more positive effects on girls than on boys. Young female athletes who participated in sports were less likely than their nonathlete peers to become pregnant, more likely to delay sex, and more likely to use contraception if sexually active (Miller et al., 1998). However, there has been little research on the causal pathways through which sports participation influences these health and social outcomes, and even less attention to the potential self-selection issue of which young women choose to become athletes, particularly in communities defined by strong gender role bias and restricted female mobility.

Suggested Citation:"6 The Transition to Citizenship." National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. 2005. Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11174.
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BOX 6-3
The Mathare Youth Sports Association in Kenya

The Mathare Youth Sports Association in Kenya is a program that provides sports facilities and social support for young boys and girls. Although begun as a sports league for boys, the association began plans to integrate girls after program managers and members of the boys’ team saw women athletes during a trip to Norway in 1992. Initially parents were reluctant to allow their daughters to participate; many expressed concern that involvement would take away time for completing chores or that the increased mobility of young girls would expose them to unsafe spaces. However, as the female participants demonstrated their resourcefulness with time management, many mothers actively encouraged their daughters.

Participation in the program has expanded the gender roles available to young girls in Kenya. Not only have female participants had the chance to build friendships and gain confidence, but participation has created an avenue for escaping the confines of daily routines. Furthermore, there was a conscious effort to work against gender stereotypes in the organization, so that, for example, doing the laundry is a job now shared by boys and girls, and young women are now allowed to drive the garbage clean-up trucks around the site. Today, more than 10 years since the beginning of the women’s program, several girls have risen through the ranks to be project managers, coaches, and referees, and a woman now coordinates the girls’ soccer program (Brady and Khan, 2002).

Work and Citizenship

Just as schools provide an environment in which young people learn about their rights and responsibilities as citizens, expand their social networks beyond the family, and gain the confidence to act in society, work can also serve as an important way to gain citizenship skills. Paid employment may develop an individual’s skills, ability and social standing (Bay and Blekesaune, 2002), and work may serve as a means of identity negotiation, learning to balance responsibilities, and gaining responsibility and sufficiency outside the home sphere (Levison, 2000). The professional and social relationships formed with colleagues facilitate the growth of social capital as well as the cultivation of an environment for the discussion of political ideas. Furthermore, community participation is mediated by the amount of time spent working, the status and stigma associated with one’s employment, the intensity and nature of the work, the work environment, and whether any union or other organizing effort is active.

In some developing countries, social legislation connects welfare, pension, and medical benefits provided by the state to the recipients’ labor contribution (Joseph, 1996; Lister, 1997). Because the formal labor market participation of young women is much lower than that of young men, their

Suggested Citation:"6 The Transition to Citizenship." National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. 2005. Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11174.
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opportunities for citizenship through employment are more limited. However, the gap between young men’s and women’s employment is narrowing. Young women are further excluded from social and political engagement in public spaces through the burden of their domestic labor, which is heavy during the adolescent years even when they are attending school (Ritchie et al., 2004). These responsibilities leave young women with little leisure time to spend engaged in community organizations or political activism.

However, when paid work is available for women, it can expand the public roles available to them. For instance, Salem, Ibrahim, and Brady (2003) discuss how young women in four rural Egyptian communities used their positions as promoters for a local NGO to participate more fully in their communities and acquire valuable social and political experience—opportunities that are rarely available to adolescent girls in rural Egypt. Although their participation was constrained by patriarchal and age norms, the young women were able to negotiate new public spaces and roles for themselves. Likewise, young women who enter the labor force through factory employment report increased mobility and expanded social relationships beyond the immediate family (Amin et al., 1998; Lynch, 1999).

Nonetheless, some adolescents who work may face the same isolation and lack of opportunities for citizenship and community participation as out-of-school youth confront. The most vulnerable adolescents are those who work while attending school, who work at too young an age, who work without the protection of a caring adult, or who work under hazardous conditions. The structure and intensity of work may prevent working adolescents from accessing or developing protective social and cultural networks. Domestic workers are a good example, because they work away from their family in unfamiliar surroundings and without protection. The time demands of labor constrain the amount of leisure time that is available for civic participation and political engagement. Furthermore, if young people are forced to assume adult labor and income-generating responsibilities but are not given a role in personal and household decision-making, they may become rebellious and alienated (Rhodes, Mihyar, and El-Rous, 2002; Tienda and Wilson, 2002).

Young people at particular risk are those who are neither enrolled in school nor employed outside the household. Rarely are these young people actually doing nothing, but rather are involved in domestic labor and unpaid work in family enterprises. These roles—unregulated and unseen—are a direct reflection of children’s lack of agency (Levison, 2000). Using micro-level data from 18 Latin American countries, Menezes-Filho (2003) found that more 16-17-year-olds than 12-13-year-olds were neither in school nor working. This increase in invisibility by age was also found among young women in a nationally representative sample of young people in Pakistan (Sathar et al., 2003a). Young women are of particular risk, since they are

Suggested Citation:"6 The Transition to Citizenship." National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. 2005. Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11174.
×

more likely than young men to be outside these formal structures. Since the social mobility of young women is often more restricted than that of young men, they are even more vulnerable to exclusion from participation in community activities.

In addition to young people who are engaged in unpaid household labor and unpaid work, there is also concern for those who are looking for work but who are unable to find it. Psychological studies have found that educated unemployed young people express a greater sense of alienation than educated employed ones (Singh, Singh, and Rani, 1996), while others have found that unemployed young people express less confidence in existing political systems, talk less about politics, and more frequently support revolutionary political ideas than their employed peers (Bay and Blekesaune, 2002). For instance, unemployed young people played a vital role in the political movements that shaped Senegal in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Young people in general were largely excluded from the rites of political participation, and the social frustration of the elite and educated turned to political violence to “express [their] disillusionment with the outcome of the restoration of democratic rule” (Diouf, 1996:229). In contrast, poor adolescent girls in rural Ecuador found that their aspirations to participate in a modernized society—built through education and exposure to the media—were thwarted by their lack of access to social capital and the formal economy (Miles, 2000).

Opportunities for Military or National Service

Military service serves as an important means for expressing patriotic sentiments and developing a sense of civic responsibility. In countries with a modern military, service in the armed forces may be an opportunity to gain valuable technical skills that will lead to future employment. Some countries, such as Bolivia, provide literacy classes to supplement basic training exercises, and enlistment in various specialties may include training in areas in which skills are transferable, such as engineering and medicine (Marshall, 2000).24 Even when specialization is not available, such experience as driving military vehicles may also transfer into future civilian employment. However, in most countries, only men are subject to compulsory recruitment policies, whereas the enlistment of women is usually voluntary. Furthermore, women in most countries are excluded from combat duty and are often restricted to clerical or medical duties. These limitations often

24  

Ellen Marshall, formerly with the U.S. State Department, shared cables from U.S. embassies around the world providing, in response to a series of questions, unclassified information and data, as of 2000, on national military and service programs.

Suggested Citation:"6 The Transition to Citizenship." National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. 2005. Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11174.
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exclude women from eligibility to be an officer, thereby restricting the extent to which they can fully participate or aspire to achieve in these contexts.

Military service may represent an alternative pathway to training and citizenship for young people who have not been successful at school or are unable to afford to continue in school. In countries without compulsory enlistment, it is often young people from the poorest, least educated, and most marginalized segments of society who are encouraged to join the armed forces as an economic and employment alternative. Although this may be the only opportunity for some young people to gain transferable skills, there is concern for the mental and physical well-being of young people who enlist in the military prior to age 18 (Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, 2001).

Child soldiers drawn directly from conflict zones are of particular concern. There are an estimated 300,000 child soldiers in the world, defined as young people younger than age 18 who are participating in armed conflict (Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, 2001). Although this estimate also includes young people who voluntarily enlisted in formal national service, the most publicized cases are of young people who have been forced into guerrilla groups, such as in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sierra Leone, and Sudan. Many of these young men may have been coerced into participation, or else may have been left with few alternatives when family members were killed, wounded, displaced, or otherwise split apart (Richards, 1996). With both the physical environment devastated, as well as all normalcy in social relations at a standstill, these young people do not grow up in an environment that offers much security. Their transition to adult citizenship may be characterized by fear, violence, and insecurity. They may also feel that it is difficult or even impossible to have an impact on their environments.

For young people in some settings, the opportunity to join an independence struggle or civil conflict may be the only way to take up an adult role and contribute to their community (Richards, 1996). Participation in organized resistance can be a forum for political education, learning organizing skills, and leadership. For example, this may have happened among South Africa’s young people in their struggle against apartheid (Marks, 2001). Elsewhere, participation in military service has been shown to enhance responsibility, self-esteem, independence, and the ability to control impulses and withstand pressures (Mayseless, 1993).

In addition to military service, national service programs can also serve as institutions that bridge the transition from adolescence to adulthood and foster civic development. Most government-sponsored nonmilitary service programs focus on enhancing development and building the human capital

Suggested Citation:"6 The Transition to Citizenship." National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. 2005. Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11174.
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infrastructure. For example, national service programs in Burkina Faso and Ghana assign recent university and polytechnic graduates to rural areas to work in education, health, and agriculture (Marshall, 2000). Not only do these programs benefit rural communities by distributing skilled workers throughout the country, but also national service participants are exposed to the issues and needs of rural civil society.

Media and Citizenship

As information and communication technologies have become more available throughout the world, the media has assumed an important role in the political socialization of young people. By creating a public space in which information can be distributed and debated, the media can contribute to the construction of adult citizenship values and practices (Buckingham, 2000; Habermas, 1989). Television, radio, newspapers, and the Internet are important sites for the dissemination of political and public health information campaigns, as well as sources of civic information and popular culture.

Aware of the influence of the mass media on young people, the Convention on the Rights of the Child (United Nations, 1989) gives it considerable attention in Article 17, which encourages mass media enterprises to “disseminate information and materials of social and cultural benefits to the child” and to be sensitive to the “linguistic needs of the child who belongs to a minority group or who is indigenous.” Although the majority of global media outlets are now dominated by a handful of multinational corporations, there is some indication with respect to television that domestic programming tops the ratings when it is available (Hoskins and Mirus, 1988; Thussu, 2000).

However, the proliferation of information and communication technologies is causing rapid transformations in all areas of life, from the speed with which information can be shared to the support of Internet-based communities that transcend national borders. Young people are among those most engaged with these new forms of communication, filtering and integrating new information to forge their identities and gain new skills (Martin-Barbero, Fox, and White, 1993; Suoranta, 2003). Despite the importance of the media as a globalizing force for cultural change, many parts of the developing world have poor access to most forms of information and communication technologies. Although a recent survey of students in eight cities in India found that 48 percent of school-going youth accessed the Internet at cyber cafes, this disguises the lack of access to the Internet in rural areas and among the poor (NetSense, 2002). While this level of connectivity is promising, it highlights the geographic and socioeconomic distribution of access. Not only is access mediated by the availability of elec-

Suggested Citation:"6 The Transition to Citizenship." National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. 2005. Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11174.
×

tricity and telephone lines, but the cost of most forms of technology makes household access prohibitively expensive in many parts of the developing world (United Nations Development Programme, 1999).

The Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) include questions on whether respondents watch television at least once a week, read the newspaper at least once a week, or listen to the radio every day. Furthermore, the DHS household surveys recorded household ownership of televisions, radios, and telephones, providing an indicator of household access to these forms of media. One of the most striking results of the surveys is the large number of young people, primarily in sub-Saharan Africa, who do not have access to any of these three media (Table 6-10).25 Household ownership of televisions and radios was lowest in these regions, leaving young people largely dependent on accessing these forms of technology at a neighbor’s house or other local common viewing areas. In contrast, household ownership of radios was higher then ownership of televisions in all regions except the former Soviet Asia, pointing to its lower cost and reliance on batteries instead of electricity. Across sub-Saharan Africa the radio was the most commonly accessed medium, with more young people listening to radio daily than had regular access to television.

Television and radio have long been employed to disseminate political information and organize political involvement, from broadcasting campaign messages and encouraging voter turnout on election days to providing forums for political debate. For example, radio programs have been used in countries as diverse as Zambia and the Dominican Republic to educate the public about the government, political parties, and the election cycle (Bratton et al., 1999; Finkel, 2002).

Although household ownership of radios roughly corresponds to the number of young people reporting that they listened to the radio regularly, the number who watched television was much higher than household ownership. This means that many may go to a neighbor’s house or some type of community center in order to watch television. This is a particularly interesting arena for future research; audience research in developed countries has shown that the social interaction of group viewing and the subsequent discussion of television programs have an important relationship to the interpretation of the message (Lull, 1988). The way in which young people talk about television often bears a strong relationship to attitudes toward civic engagement (Buckingham, 2000). Not only is this likely to be the context in which many political and civic identities are forged, but it is also an opportunity to promote social connectedness.

25  

Data for Asia and the Middle East include only the married, a very selective sample at ages 15-19.

Suggested Citation:"6 The Transition to Citizenship." National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. 2005. Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11174.
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TABLE 6-10 Media Access, 15-19-Year-Olds (Weighted Averages)

Region

Television

Radio

Newspaper

Watch at Least Once a Week

Household Ownership

Listen Daily

 

Household Ownership

Read at Least Once a Week

Female

Male

 

Female

Male

 

Female

Male

Former Soviet Asia

92

90

90

46

26

52

59

39

Western and Middle Africa

45

56

20

43

61

58

20

28

Southern and Eastern Africa

22

21

15

38

41

47

21

21

Caribbean/Central America

71

64

51

69

65

68

47

44

South America

86

90

70

80

76

86

59

60

SOURCE: Demographic and Health Surveys.

Suggested Citation:"6 The Transition to Citizenship." National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. 2005. Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11174.
×

However, other research has shown that heavy television viewing is associated with a “mainstreaming” of political views. In a study of Argentinean adolescents in Buenos Aires and its surrounding 41 towns, Morgan and Shanahan (1991) found that young people who were heavy television viewers (more than 30 hours a week) were more likely than light viewers (less than 20 hours a week) to agree that people should obey authority and to approve of limits on the freedom of speech. Heavy television viewing was significantly associated with less diversity in outlooks and a decrease in the impact of other demographic influences. Although the data did not allow the researchers to address the nature of this relationship, they hypothesized that, among heavy viewers, time spent watching television may preclude participation in civic activities that might promote more “democratic” political thinking (Morgan and Shanahan, 1991).

Beyond the political spectrum, the images, actions, and words broadcast through the media become part of the common cultural language shared by all members of the audience. Although there are few data available, it is also important to consider how the Internet contributes to the construction of civic knowledge and behavior. Both a source of information and social connections, the Internet is the most rapidly growing form of media today. However, access to the Internet is even more sharply divided globally than any other form of information and communication technology. From 1999 to 2002, global access to the Internet tripled; by the year 2005, it is anticipated that over 1 billion people may be on line (Nua, 2003; United Nations Development Programme, 1999; World Bank, 2003). However, the majority of access is restricted to Europe, Canada, and the United States. As of 2002, the Middle East and Africa combined accounted for only 6 percent of all global Internet use (Nua, 2002). Furthermore, over 80 percent of material on the Internet is posted in English, thereby limiting its potential for anyone who is not fluent (Nua, 2002; United Nations Development Programme, 1999). This digital divide has profound consequences, particularly for a media whose usage is dominated by young people around the globe.

The digital divide is not limited to differentials between countries; in any given nation access is also regulated by education, socioeconomic status, and residence in an urban or rural area (Suoranta, 2003). Not only is access mediated by literacy and fluency in English, but use of the Internet also requires basic computer literacy. Furthermore, there is concern that this difference in access will also expand the knowledge gap, whereby young people with access to the Internet will benefit not only from the content of the knowledge and connections formed, but also from the abstract skills gained from conducting searches for information, processing and filtering what is retrieved, and using the subsequent information (Castells, 2000; Suoranta, 2003).

Suggested Citation:"6 The Transition to Citizenship." National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. 2005. Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11174.
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CONCLUSIONS AND POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS

Key Findings

The political and civic interests and behaviors of young people are important topics for future research. In recent years, the definition of citizenship has been broadened beyond the individual’s relationship with the nation-state to encompass various dimensions of political and civic participation. At the same time, elements of rapid global change, including democratization and the rise of civil society, the growing reach of the media, and the formation of transnational identities, have all contributed to a growing appreciation of the importance of citizenship in the development process. As a result, such issues as the formation of citizenship and the role of young people as citizens have taken on increased prominence and attention in the development literature.


Youth participation in civil society and political life has recently emerged as an important development objective. Many international organizations and NGOs now recognize the importance of involving young people in development planning and addressing their needs. Young people are expressing greater voice at the local, national, and international levels and pushing agendas that address their concerns.


Most developing country governments now recognize 18 as the legal age of majority. Typically, this is the age at which citizens are given the right to vote and young men are subject to compulsory recruitment to the military. However, significant age gaps still remain between the time at which young people are held responsible for adult actions, such as the age of criminal responsibility and the minimum age for employment, and the age at which they are legally able to express a political voice.


Current cross-national surveys are inadequate for investigating young people’s transition to citizenship. The results of many surveys that have made the effort to include young adults from developing countries are rarely presented by both age and gender, in part because many have not sampled a sufficient number of young adults to allow more discrete descriptive analysis. Although these characteristics are often included as explanatory variables in regressions, the distinct patterns of involvement by young adults have not been given sufficient attention.


The set of indicators currently available for measuring the participation, agency, and empowerment of young people are inadequate. Many of the data sets that measure the political and civic involvement of young people

Suggested Citation:"6 The Transition to Citizenship." National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. 2005. Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11174.
×

have been adapted from public opinion surveys of adults and are grounded in the traditional indicators of citizenship as derived from Western theory. Few adequately capture regionally specific forms of participation or the collective forms of agency used by young people.


Men are more likely to participate in traditional political activities than women. Young men are more likely than young women to express interest in politics, vote, join political parties, although there is some evidence that the gender gap in political interest closes as the gender gap in the educational attainment and labor force participation of women decreases.


Young people are more likely than older adults to participate in community organizations. Young men and women are more likely to be involved with arts, sports, and religious activities in almost all of the regions for which there are data; although there are few data available to explain this trend, differences may be due to differences in the discretionary time of young people in comparison to older adults. Among young people, participation in these organizations is highly gendered, with young men more likely to be involved in sports organizations and young women more likely to be engaged with religious or arts activities.


Young people have greater trust in religious institutions and the press than in public institutions. They are more likely to express trust in the religious institutions than they are in the national government, the police, or the civil service. Furthermore, there is evidence that older adolescents are less trusting of all institutions than younger adolescents.

Policy Recommendations

Governments should work toward greater consistency in operational definitions of adulthood, particularly as they relate to various aspects of the practice of citizenship, including voting, military service, and criminal responsibility. The panel’s review of laws relating to the legal age of majority reveals many inconsistencies across and within countries in ages of majority.


Civic education should include the acceptance of diversity, the teaching of prosocial values, opportunities for participation in school governance, and media literacy. The majority of current civic education programs focus on teaching the function and purpose of government and the law. School-based and nonschool-based programs should extend instruction beyond basic civics in order to foster critical thinking and service learning.

Suggested Citation:"6 The Transition to Citizenship." National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. 2005. Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11174.
×

Programs designed to enhance the capabilities of young people should actively address issues of participation in the public domain. Self-confidence and participation in decision-making influence a young person’s self-recognition as a political actor. These skills are closely connected to the economic and social outcomes most frequently addressed.


Compensatory programs for girls and other disadvantaged groups that combine nonformal education and livelihoods training with opportunities for group participation should be developed in order to help them overcome their social isolation. When young women and other disadvantaged individuals are able to develop a public sphere of their own, they can be empowered to acquire a sense of self and of personal competence and can gain a network of peers, which can serve as a source of social capital during the transition to adulthood. As young women develop a sense of political competence, they will be able to exercise greater voice in the family, community, and nation-state.


Priority should be placed on building the infrastructure systems that will provide greater equality of access to information and communication technologies. Social, economic, and political development is increasingly dependent on access to forms of information and communication technologies. The current digital divide is influenced by the availability of electricity, the cost of services, and the literacy and language requirements of the media. The skills deficit of young people without access to the Internet and other forms of media will only deepen economic inequities.

Research Recommendations

The social, political, and economic environment in which young people are maturing is changing rapidly. In-depth qualitative research holds the most promise for capturing the diversity of structures, networks, and opportunities that young people use to engage with their communities and to participate in the political sphere. Only after the range of these practices has been identified can quantitative surveys adequately measure the levels and implications of youth participation. Furthermore, it is important that empirical research investigate the roles that ethnicity, religion, and other forms of identity play in shaping the formation and practice of citizenship by young people.

  • How is citizenship actually developed and practiced in developing country contexts? What are the relevant indicators? In what ways do

Suggested Citation:"6 The Transition to Citizenship." National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. 2005. Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11174.
×

community-based nonformal organizations provide opportunities for the formation and practice of citizenship?

  • How do civic participation and attitudes toward politics differ between young citizens in new democracies and young citizens in established democracies? What does it mean to be a citizen in an authoritarian state?

  • What are the appropriate indicators for measuring the agency and community engagement of young people?

  • What are the levels and types of political processes that young people participate in? What motivates them to engage or disengage with political processes?

  • How does the acquisition of the rights and responsibilities of citizenship relate to the success of other transitions to adulthood?

  • How are emerging forms of media (e.g., the Internet, mobile phones, independent radio) affecting the ways in which citizenship formation and practice are evolving?

  • How are rising levels of school enrollment influencing the relationship between citizens and the state?

  • What are the strategies used by young people to maintain social connections in the developing world’s rapidly growing urban centers?

  • How have the transnational flows of people, capital, and communication technologies influenced the formation and practice of citizenship and community engagement of young people?

  • What forms of transnational activism do young people pursue? How are they changing in response to new information and communication technologies? What issues motivate these movements?

  • What role does religion play in expressing political views and identities among young people?

  • To what extent is it important to understand how the determinants of citizenship and the impact of citizenship differ by groups defined by such characteristics as gender, class, ethnicity, race, caste, tribe, and religion? To what extent can causal effects be identified for all these aspects of the determinants or the impact of citizenship?

Suggested Citation:"6 The Transition to Citizenship." National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. 2005. Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11174.
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The challenges for young people making the transition to adulthood are greater today than ever before. Globalization, with its power to reach across national boundaries and into the smallest communities, carries with it the transformative power of new markets and new technology. At the same time, globalization brings with it new ideas and lifestyles that can conflict with traditional norms and values. And while the economic benefits are potentially enormous, the actual course of globalization has not been without its critics who charge that, to date, the gains have been very unevenly distributed, generating a new set of problems associated with rising inequality and social polarization. Regardless of how the globalization debate is resolved, it is clear that as broad global forces transform the world in which the next generation will live and work, the choices that today's young people make or others make on their behalf will facilitate or constrain their success as adults. Traditional expectations regarding future employment prospects and life experiences are no longer valid.

Growing Up Global examines how the transition to adulthood is changing in developing countries, and what the implications of these changes might be for those responsible for designing youth policies and programs, in particular, those affecting adolescent reproductive health. The report sets forth a framework that identifies criteria for successful transitions in the context of contemporary global changes for five key adult roles: adult worker, citizen and community participant, spouse, parent, and household manager.

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