Political Participation and Institutional Trust of Young Adults in Ukraine: Matching Economic and Political Conditions with European Social Survey Fieldwork Periods, 2004–2012

Abstract

Whereas economic grievance and the political opportunity structure could be the basis for understanding Ukrainian youth political participation and institutional trust, to date, no one has systematically applied the necessary contextual information to survey data to make this claim. To study these topics with survey data, we would need to match this context to the specifi c fi eldwork periods in which the survey data was collected. In this article, I match the economic and political situations of young adults in Ukraine with the fi eldwork periods of the European Social Survey (ESS) from 2004 to 2012. This facilitates the use of ESS to test theories of grievance and political opportunity structure. I found that periods of economic grievance do not neatly align with trends in participation and trust. The possibility is open for the continual low participation and trust to be associated with the political opportunity structure provided predominantly by political parties during mass uprisings.