“DEMOCRACY IS PRIMARILY ACHIEVED THROUGH VOTING”: SOCIAL REPRESENTATIONS OF ADOLESCENTS

Abstract Various studies have recently revealed that a political representation crisis is taking place worldwide. The aim of this study is understand the social representations of democracy showed in the narratives of Argentine adolescents (N=32) aged between 16 and 18 years. A semi-structured interview was used, which was based on Piaget’s clinical method. The results obtained show that adolescents represent democracy as a fundamental mechanism for the operation of the representative democratic regime and the inherent principles of this form of government. It is concluded that these ways of representing democracy seem to overshadow the possibility of regarding it as a system of government, that is, a broad political institution.