Youth Opts for Business, Politics for Youth
Young Ukrainians want to be rich, and to make their dreams come true they are eager to start their own businesses. Talking to a 30 year-old owner of a private beauty shop, I tried to find out how attractive the idea of having one’s own business is to the young and what prevents them. Oksana Prokopenko opened her hairdressing salon three years ago, with her former colleagues from the state-owned establishment and her apprentices numbering five in total agreeing to work for her. The first year was especially difficult when the business had not yet got off the ground and considerable investment was needed. With the conditions for starting up more favorable now, Oksana’s main worry today is the state’s economic policy. She believes it should promote economic growth in Ukraine because that is what her clients’ paying power depends on. “Spring is our best season, but we don’t have any clients because they have no money,” complains the owner of the neat and inexpensive hairdresser’s. Still, for all the difficulty of surviving in the free market, Oksana does not want to go back to living on the fixed stable income of the planned economy. She is aware that her achievements or failures basically depend on he own efforts.
Every other young Ukrainian wants to become a businessperson, statistics from the Ukrainian Institute for Social Research reveal. With regard to their role in politics, the results are quite different. “Only one percent of young Ukrainians are members of a party,” says Deputy Director of the State Institute for the Problems of Family and Youth Valery Holovenko. As proven by the figures, the share of the young in the total voter force in the last elections was 16%.
Today political programs are aimed at young people, with some angling for and some openly placing their bets on youth. Of the thirty-three political parties and blocs running for parliament, only the Winter Generation and New Generation advertised themselves as youth parties. As proven by exit- polls run jointly by Sotsys, the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, and the Ukrainian Institute for Social Research, the lineup of the new Verkhovna Rada could have been different if only young voters in the 18-28 age group had voted. The Winter Generation would have made it to parliament, with 5% of the young vote, with the Yushchenko Bloc increasing its tally to 25.3%, the For A United Ukraine Bloc to 13.2%, the Yuliya Tymoshenko Bloc to 11%, and the SDPU(o) to 9%. The Women For Future and New Generation blocs would have come close to clearing the coveted 4% threshold. The tally of the Communists would have plunged to 7.37% and the Socialist party with 2.83% would have not made it to Verkhovna Rada at all.
These statistics are graphic confirmation that the young see their future in the market economy. Their lack of interest in politics can be explained by their inadequate exposure to work in the market environment. Unlike Oksana Prokopenko who knows how to make her business a success, the interdependency of politics and business is still not so obvious to the young.
COMMENTARY
Volodymyr HORBULIN: “I am struck by the naive cynicism of the young”
In our young state there is an idea that everything including politicians should be young. But, in fact, it turns out that politicians represent various age groups. Under the Constitution, any Ukrainian twenty-one years of age on Election Day can be elected a people’s deputy, with a 35 year ceiling for the highest office. Accordingly, this raises questions such as who can be considered a young politician and who old, and what the difference between the old and young politician is. Of course, we can skip this insidious question by recalling that the word politics in Ukrainian is of feminine gender. No wonder all politicians show such a characteristically feminine desire to charm and be admired. Similarly, in a purely feminine way politicians do not like to become old and flinch when they are called old in earnest for the first time. That is why it would be no exaggeration to state that the age of a politician depends on how young he looks.
Acting on the assumption that a man remains young as long as he does stupid things, many representatives of the Ukrainian political beau monde can lay claim to eternal youth. Of course, veteran politicians are also susceptible to folly but, as a rule, they tend to plunge into in with more caution.
What I have said does not mean that I am a secret supporter of gerontocracy whose delights we learned the hard way during the period of stagnation. Extremes meet, they say, and that is why I am absolutely opposed to pedocracy, although I have always sincerely admired the young. For example, I have always been struck by its, so to speak, naive cynicism. After all, a cynic is a person who says out loud what everybody else thinks, but saying things aloud is one of the features of a public leader.
The major age-related problem in Ukrainian politics, in my view, is not that we have few young politicians but that there are very few real politicians or, as we now like to say, politicians by calling. What is a politician expected to do? He must reflect on how to make the economy more competitive and more society-oriented at the same time. Will we succeed in preserving and developing our own, not borrowed, culture? How can we ensure a decent living not only for our children but also for their parents? You have to agree that the number of such people is definitely too low as opposed to those who wish to take part in politics. Quite often, the latter are guided not by public or political interests, but by their careers and personal financial, entrepreneurial, and such interests. This pattern will prevail as long as politics continues to be a springboard to prestigious office, a kind of business. Given such conditions, there won’t be any substantial positive role of young politicians.
Our society badly needs not only professional but also honest politicians. Unfortunately, neither age nor youth is any absolute indicator of either morality or professionalism.
I am positive that any attempts at artificial rejuvenation of the Ukrainian political scene cannot bring the desired effect. The most important prerequisite for a successful career in politics, even under our conditions, is when young political players, rather than being appointed by the authorities, are selected in a natural way helped by the voters. This is why the so recently fashionable youth shadow parliaments and student governments should not be treated seriously. Politics involves above all responsibility to society, and only then play.
