Education and Political Efficacy Among Youth in Kosovo : A field study on university students’ perceptions on the effect of higher education on political efficacy and political behavior

Sammanfattning: This study seeks to investigate perceptions on education’s effect on political efficacy among university students at University of Pristhina, Kosovo; as well as how that seems to inform political behavior. Education is believed to have important implications on political behavior, an important factor for this is internal and external political efficacy, which allows research to disentangle educational effects on the individual’s political behavior. In-depth interviews were conducted during a minor field study to examine these perceptions. Three ideal personality types were detected among the respondents in regard to their respective level of internal and external political efficacy, while the perception of how education informed these two components on the contrary was portrayed as uniform regardless of level of perceived political efficacy. It is found, in line with previous research, that education is perceived to increase internal political efficacy, making the individuals more confident in their capacity to understand and participate in politics. External political efficacy seems to be less informed by education and more so by the societal context in which the students find themselves. In a context such as Kosovo, which still struggles with its democratization process, this leads to low levels of external political confidence. Further studies are recommended to increase the understanding of, in particular, the external political efficacy among youths in Kosovo.