Young Hungarian’s constructions of active citizenship: Theoretical models and real-world voices

We explore how young Hungarians construct active citizenship in a context of political discontent and social and economic uncertainty. From research conducted in the autumn of 2012, we link up young Hungarians voices to the much debated theoretical models of citizenship. We find that while these young people’s abstract and normative constructions of active citizenship tend to resonate with a duty-based ‘communitarian’ model of citizenship, their opinions on social and political issues echo a more ‘critical’ model of citizenship, which lays emphasis on equality and social justice. Additional themes to emerge, and of which may be a hindrance to political participation, include: the view that demonstrating is ‘bad’; and, that young people construct themselves and their peers as ‘non-citizens’. We argue that in order to help overcome this passive and non-agentic perception of democratic citizenship, citizenship education in schools should be combined with purposely reflective youth debates on what it means to be a young person in Hungary now.