A Reflection on young people’s understanding of politics and political orientation in Slovenia in the era of neoliberal rationality

Pušnik, Tomaž (author), Čehovin, Gregor (author)

The article examines media and research accounts of alleged turn to the right among young people in Slovenia. Rather than treating this shift in moral terms as evidence of an inadequate understanding of politics, research with young people is drawn on to analyse how different groups understand politics and how they position themselves on the left– right spectrum. Using a Foucauldian analytics of government, young activists are shown to understand politics in systemic terms, and through a critique of the neoliberal order, young politicians chiefly in institutional terms and within the existing neoliberal rationality, and apolitical young people on the individual level, through ideals of the good life. While their left–right positioning does not indicate an unequivocal turn to the right among young people, it does show differences in their political and social engagement. We understand young people’s political orientations as situated processes of subjectivation within neoliberal relations of power, thereby moving the discussion from moralising judgements towards analysis of the conditions that produce these orientations.

• Language: English
• Keywords: youth, perception of politics, ideals, political orientation, left– right, analytics of government, age and politics, political culture, sociology of elections, political participation of young people, Slovenia
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FDV - Faculty of Social Sciences
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Publication date: 28.10.2026
• Year: 2026
• Number of pages: Str. 609-635
• Numbering: Letn. 63, št. 3
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-190931
• UDC: 316.62:324(497.4)
• ISSN on article: 0040-3598
• DOI: 10.51936/tip.63.3.609
• COBISS.SI-ID: 304326403
• Publication date in RUL: 07.11.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Teorija in praksa : revija za družbena vprašanja
• Shortened title: Teor. praksa
• Publisher: Fakulteta za družbene vede
• ISSN: 0040-3598
• COBISS.SI-ID: 763652

Licences

• License: CC BY-NC 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
• Description: A creative commons license that bans commercial use, but the users don’t have to license their derivative works on the same terms.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Title: Refleksija razumevanja politike in politične orientacije mladih v Sloveniji v času neoliberalne racionalnosti

Abstract

Članek obravnava medijske in raziskovalne ugotovitve o domnevnem obratu mladih v desno v Sloveniji. Namesto moralnih sodb, da ta obrat izraža pomanjkljivo razumevanje politike, prek raziskovanja z mladimi analiziramo, kako različne skupine mladih razumejo politiko in svojo levo-desno orientacijo. S foucaultovsko analitiko oblasti pokažemo, da mladi aktivisti politiko razumejo sistemsko in kot kritiko neoliberalne ureditve, mladi politiki institucionalno znotraj obstoječe neoliberalne racionalnosti, apolitični mladi pa individualno, skozi ideale dobrega življenja. Njihova levo-desne usmeritve ne potrjujejo enoznačnega obrata mladih v desno, temveč kažejo razlike glede na politično in družbeno angažiranost. Politične orientacije mladih razumemo kot situirane procese subjektivacije znotraj neoliberalnih razmerij moči, razpravo pa od moraliziranja preusmerjamo k analizi razmer, v katerih te orientacije nastajajo.

• Keywords: mladina, percepcije politike, ideali, politična orientacija levo-desno, analitika oblasti, starost in politika, politična kultura, sociologija volitev, politična participacija mladi, Slovenija

Projects

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: J5-3109-2021
• Name: Onkraj volilne skrinjice: percepcije in prakse politične participacije mladih