Young people age 35 and under make up more than half of Algeria's population, but they are largely absent from political life. Broad confidence in the government is lacking, with youth seeing no clear benefit to getting involved at even the most basic level in their communities. The political system provides few openings for young people to participate in a constructive manner. Their mounting frustration is sometimes taken out through street protests, which can turn violent.

As ethnic divisions ease in the Balkans, political parties across the spectrum are finding the need for new approaches that focus on thoughtful policy debate rather than personality and ethnicity. Young leaders in particular will play an important role in these changes.

NDI recently published the El Salvador 2009 Benchmark Democracy Survey, which measures citizens’ democratic values and perceptions of democracy in their country. NDI also has administered similar surveys in Nicaragua and Guatemala.

Growing up in isolation from one another, young Serbs and Albanians born in Kosovo and Serbia have little opportunity, and often little desire, to interact with each other and with peers from other ethnic communities. Factors that brought their parents together when the countries were part of Yugoslavia – common language, economic opportunities and a lack of borders – no longer exist and have been replaced with misperceptions, fear, and disrespect.