To What Extent Political Education Can Influences Young Voters’ Perceptions?

Ridho Al-Hamdi; Nur Sofyan

doi:10.31000/jgcs.v7i1.7259

To What Extent Political Education Can Influences Young Voters’ Perceptions?

Ridho Al-Hamdi, Nur Sofyan

Abstract

This paper sought to examine the influence of the political education program on young voters’ perceptions in responding to a threefold issue: democracy, election, and political parties. By applying a quantitative method, this research employs a regional survey to gather data through a series of intensive training for university students with 17 to 24 in age. There are 37 questions, of which 68 valid respondents shall answer before the training (pre-test) and after the training (post-test). The finding reveals that intensive political education has an authoritative influence in transforming young voters’ perceptions of those issues. It can be proven that most young voters’ perceptions increased from pre-test to post-test. When positive perceptions reached 56.76% in the pre-test, they changed dramatically to 94.59% in the post-test. Conversely, negative perceptions declined from 43.24% in the pre-test to 5.41% in the post-test. This indicates that young voters believe in the fruitfulness and effectiveness of the political education program in constructing the way of thinking and behaving comprehensively toward those three issues. Therefore, this paper not only recommends but also strongly demands that all stakeholders organize such a political education earnestly for young voters to generate future generations who participate in consolidating the democratic fate.

Artikel ini merupakan sebuah usaha mengkaji pengaruh program pendidikan politik terhadap persepsi pemilih pemula dalam merespon tiga isu, yaitu demokrasi, pemilu, dan partai politik. Dengan menggunakan metode penelitian kuantitatif, studi ini menggunakan teknik survei yang dilakukan secara regional untuk mengumpulkan data melalui serangkaian pelatihan yang intensif terhadap mahasiswa dengan usia antara 17 dan 24 tahun. Ada 37 pertanyaan di mana 68 responden yang valid harus menjawab sebelum pelatihan (pre-test) dan setelah pelatihan (post-test). Temuan studi ini menunjukkan, bahwa program pendidikan politik yang dilakukan secara intensif memiliki pengaruh yang luar biasa dalam merubah persepsi pemilih pemula terhadap tiga isu tersebut. Ini dibuktikan dengan hasil survei, bahwa mayoritas persepsi responden mengalami peningkatan dari saat pre-test ke post-test. Ketika persepsi positif hanya di prosentase 56,76% saat pre-test, persepsi tersebut meningkat tajam ke prosentase 94,59% saat post-test. Sebaliknya, persepsi negatif turun dari prosentase 43,24% saat pre-test ke prosentase 5,41% saat post-test. Hal ini menunjukkan kenyataan, bahwa pemilih pemula yakin terhadap keberhasilan dan efektivitas program pendidikan politik dalam membentuk cara berfikir dan bertindak yang komprehensif terhadap tiga isu tersebut. Oleh karena itu, artikel ini tidak hanya merekomendasikan tetapi juga meminta secara kuat terhadap sejumlah pihak yang terkait untuk menyelenggarakan program pendidikan politik secara serius terhadap para pemilih pemula agar dapat melahirkan generasi masa depan yang memiliki komitmen untuk mengonsolidasikan nasib demokrasi.

Keywords

Young voters; political education; perception; democracy; election

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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.31000/jgcs.v7i1.7259