Conference Agenda

In the evolving landscape of public governance, the engagement of young people in democratic processes is no longer a peripheral concern—it is a central imperative. In an era also marked by rapid technological transformation (e. g. use of Artificial Intelligence tools), the role of young people in democratic life has become a central concern for policymakers, scholars, and governance institutions. Across Europe and beyond, declining levels of youth trust in public institutions and their limited participation in formal political decision-making raise serious questions about the future legitimacy, resilience, and adaptability of democratic governance. Simultaneously, however, young people are developing new modes of civic expression, often outside traditional structures, through digital platforms, civil society organizations, protest movements, and grassroots initiatives. These shifts necessitate a renewed scholarly and policy-oriented inquiry into how youth engage with democracy and how public institutions might better support inclusive governance.

This paper contributes to this inquiry by mapping the research landscape on youth and democratic participation through a bibliometric analysis of 2,100 documents indexed in the Scopus database from the early 2000s through March 2025. The study focuses on scholarship addressing youth, adolescents, students, and young people in connection with voting, political participation, civic engagement, and democracy. It aims to uncover trends, gaps, and thematic concentrations within this field and reflect on how academic knowledge might support more participatory and future-ready policy frameworks.

Our methodological approach combines established and innovative bibliometric analysis techniques using Python-based tools. Descriptive statistics—such as publication growth, geographic distribution, and institutional affiliations—are paired with thematic analyses, including keyword co-occurrence networks and topic modelling (LDA). This dual focus enables the study not only to chart where and by whom research is being produced, but also to identify which themes are dominant, which remain underexplored, and how these have shifted over time.

Preliminary findings suggest an expanding research interest in youth civic engagement, particularly since the early 2000s. Thematic clusters include traditional political behaviour (e.g., voting, party membership), new modes of digital participation, youth attitudes toward institutional trust, and the role of civic education. Notably, spikes in research output align with key sociopolitical events—such as the COVID-19 pandemic—reflecting the reactive nature of both youth activism and academic inquiry.

This paper offers more than just a bibliometric analysis since it situates academic trends within a larger normative and strategic conversation. It argues that youth engagement must be reframed not as a problem of apathy, but as a question of access, recognition, and trust. Public administration systems must adapt to become more inclusive and participatory, particularly by co-creating platforms and procedures with young users rather than for them. Furthermore, public employees (and even decision makers) must be trained to understand the evolving values and expectations of younger generations, especially in digital civic environments. By mapping the current state of academic interest and knowledge on youth democratic participation and by highlighting key policy-relevant gaps, this study contributes to reimagining public decision-making systems that are not only more agile and innovative but also more legitimate and representative.

1. Problem Statement and Purpose

Agricultural water use has long accounted for a significant proportion of China’s total water consumption. The increasing demand for groundwater and irrational water use have led to serious overexploitation of groundwater, triggering a series of ecological and environmental problems. Among these, the most severe decline in groundwater levels occurs in the North China Plain, which has become the largest groundwater funnel area in the world. To address the overexploitation of groundwater in North China, China's No. 1 central document for 2014 explicitly proposed to launch the first provincial pilot project for the integrated governance of groundwater overexploitation in Hebei Province. After a decade of governance, has this policy effectively promoted water conservation in the agricultural sector? What is the intrinsic mechanism by which the policy affects agricultural water use?

This paper aims to study the water-saving effect of pilot policies for comprehensive governance of groundwater overexploitation on the agricultural sector, and provide reference for optimizing regional water resource policies.

2. Methodology

This paper employs the Synthetic Control Method to empirically analyze the impact of integrated governance of groundwater overexploitation on agricultural water use. Hebei Province is used as the treatment group, while provinces that did not participate in the pilot project serve as the control group. The data is derived from panel data of 31 provinces in China over the past 20 years.

3. Findings

After the implementation of the integrated governance of groundwater overexploitation, the difference in agricultural water consumption between actual and counterfactual scenarios has shown a negative and continuous expansion trend. Among them, the agricultural water consumption in the year of policy implementation decreased by 640 million cubic meters compared to before, and after 4 years of policy implementation, it can save 2.21 billion cubic meters of water, with an average annual water saving of 11.5%. The pilot policy for integrated governance of groundwater overexploitation can significantly reduce agricultural water consumption, and the water-saving effect of the policy has been highlighted year by year.

4. Proposal

It is essential to advance the governance in existing pilot areas while progressively expanding the scope of the pilot program to extend it to other groundwater funnel regions across the nation. Efforts should be intensified to innovate and disseminate water-saving technologies in the pilot regions. There should be an increase in the use of multiple channels to replace groundwater, such as water diversion, inter-regional water transfer, and water replenishment. It is also crucial to promote the renovation and facility matching of large and medium-sized water conservancy projects, improve the construction of small-scale farmland water conservancy infrastructure, develop water-adapted planting models, and drive the development of water-saving agriculture.

5. References

[1]Alberto A, Javier G. The Economic Costs of Conflict: A Case Study of the Basque Country. American Economic Review, 2003, 93(1).

[2]Xie H, Cheng L. Influence Factors and Ecological Compensation Standard of Winter Wheat-fallow in the Groundwater Funnel Area. Journal of Natural Resources, 2017, (12): 2012-2022.

The central research question of the current contribution is the relationship between policy implementation and public preferences for policy instruments. We assume that policies produce desirable outcomes in case there are favorable public attitudes toward the instruments through which they are implemented. Based on a representative sample of the adult population in Bulgaria, we argue that research on public attitudes should accompany implementation and be used to tailor and enrich instruments so that the expected outcomes become possible. This will make implementation more costly, but will reduce both the time it takes and the opportunities for policy failure in general. A necessary condition for achieving the impact of using research on attitudes relates to the discretionary power of the agencies involved in implementation - if they do not have the capacity or formal authority to change policies, this research should be done in the early stages of policy process. However, it then be predictive and therefore less reliable.

The theoretical premises for the development of the research model include:

1. Implementation Theory with emphasis on Jeffrey L. Pressman and Aaron B. Wildavsky, (Implementation. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973, pp. xviii, 182), Eugene Bardach (The Implementation Game: What Happens After a Bill Becomes Law by. Cambridge, MIT Press, 1977) and B. Guy Peters, Implementation structures as institutions. Public Policy and Administration 29.2 (2014): 131-144).

2. Research on implementation failures summarized by Howes, Michael, et al. "Environmental sustainability: a case of policy implementation failure?" Sustainability 9.2 (2017).

3. Research on public attitudes towards policy instruments (Haselswerdt et al., 2015; Enste & Potthoff, 2021, Wielicka-Regulska, 2020; Andersson & Almqvist, 2022).

Using environmental policy as an example, our study shows that public attitudes towards instruments do not depend on the socio-demographic characteristics of respondents. There is no obvious difference between preferences towards coercive and incentive instruments. At the same time, preferences to negative incentives prevail if they do not affect the respondent himself. There is a tendency to shift the responsibility for environmental behaviour to others and especially to institutions. Additionally, the application of environmental measures does not lead to a change in preferences for the instruments, nor to an increase in public support for environmental policy in general.

Comparison of our data with those of other studies shows that preferences for instruments are highly dependent on the social, political, and cultural contexts in which they take shape. A generalization of the factors that shape preferences for environmental policy instruments is therefore rather impossible. Only research on public attitudes during implementation can be used to improve the process as a whole.

South Africa’s digital divide is rooted in the country’s broader socio-economic and historical inequalities primarily shaped by apartheid-era policies that marginalised the majority population from economic opportunities, quality education, and infrastructure development. The systemic segregation of resources led to huge disparities between urban and rural areas, as well as between wealthy and low income communities. While post 1994 government have made strides in trying to bridge the gap by expanding electricity, telecommunications and education, the lingering effects of this inequality persist in the digital space. This paper examines the challenges that persist despite digital transformation, including infrastructure inequalities, affordability issues, and digital literacy gaps. The aim is to explore how bridging this divide can improve service delivery, particularly in rural and underserved communities, by enabling citizens to access government services, submit grievances, and receive timely responses. To provide practical insights the paper study compares South Africa’s digital inclusion efforts with those of countries facing similar developmental challenges, including Brazil, Kenya, and India. A qualitative research methodology is followed through the use of a comprehensive literature review and document analysis. It is assumed that a coordinated national digital inclusion strategy, supported by targeted policies and investments in digital infrastructure and education, would not only bridge the divide but also enhance government responsiveness and service accessibility for marginalized populations. It is therefore crucial for policymakers to integrate digital inclusion as a fundamental component of South Africa’s broader socio-economic development agenda.