In the fifth and final report on DAPDV results, we examine the perceptions of young people regarding the democratic rule of law among students in the fifth and sixth year of secondary school. This current report differs from the four previous ones, for a good reason. Our panel students in the vocational track (vmbo) have left secondary school after the fourth year, which means this report primarily focuses on students in the higher general secondary education track (havo) (up to year 5) and the pre-university education track (vwo) (up to year 6). To conclude six years of data collection, this report maps the full development of all students from year 1 to year 6.
Now that the project has been finalized, it is time to take stock. Three overarching conclusions summarize the key findings of the project. First, we see that students demonstrate a strong attachment to representative democracy throughout their entire secondary school career. This support for representative democracy as a form of governance also increases as students get older. At the same time, the results show that students increasingly reject governance by a single strong leader and limitations on current voting rights, while expressing broad support for freedom of expression.
However, this does not mean that all young people feel equally engaged in politics. Our second overarching conclusion is therefore that there are significant differences in political engagement among groups of students based on their level of education. For instance, students in the vocational track (vmbo) consistently feel less heard by politicians, have persistently less trust in officials, and are less likely to vote in the future compared to havo and vwo students. As these inequalities are already visible in the first year of secondary school and show little decrease over the years, the findings suggest that schools play only a limited role in reducing these differences. This implies that we must turn to the process of political socialization that occurs outside the classroom if we want to better understand similar educational-level disparities among adults.
While inequalities between groups of students remain constant, their perceptions certainly do not. Our results show that high school students are increasingly becoming politically mature. In most perceptions, there is a clear learning curve overall. Students become increasingly adept at aligning their attitudes with political developments and have a stronger belief in their understanding of politics as they get older. Additionally, they become better at determining which democratic values they find most important for themselves.
The full report is available here.
Finally, we would like to thank all participating students and schools, as well as all involved researchers, student assistants, and partners for making this research project possible.
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