The article gives an analysis of the youth policy of the Republic of Kazakhstan. In modern Kazakhstan, young people are increasingly seeking ways to protect their rights and interests, thereby creating various institutions and organizations from the bodies of school and student government to youth parliaments, youth governments and various public organizations. In addition, the number of youth participation in political organizations (both pro-governmental and opposition) is increasing. Young people are able to openly declare their desire to build a new country, a new economy, a new policy. In the context of modernizing the country, which is so much and often said today, the notion of juvenization becomes topical.
The following youth movements were formed in Kazakhstan during the period of independence. Among them:” Zhas Otan”, “Association of Young Leaders”, “Youth Parliament of Kazakhstan”, “Youth Media Alliance of Kazakhstan”, “Kaisar”, “Kahar”, “Union of Patriotic Youth of Kazakhstan”, “Abyroi” and etc. Some still continue their activities, while others have unfortunately been disbanded. However, to date, there is no mass youth organization in Kazakhstan that can really protect the interests of young people. At the same time, most of the existing organizations are mostly state-owned and accordingly are pro-governmental in nature [1].
The most popular youth organization, of course, is “Zhas Otan”. This organization is youth wing of the People’s Democratic Party “Nur Otan”, which was created in the form of a public association at the 1st Congress “Zhas Otan” on May 14, 2008 in Astana. The organization has branches in all regions of the country, the cities of Astana and Almaty, as well as branches at the district and city levels. The central council of the youth wing “Zhas Otan” includes deputies of the mazhilis of the parliament of Kazakhstan, maslikhats of all levels, leaders of youth NGOs, young athletes and cultural figures.
The youth wing “Zhas Otan” shares and supports the ideas of the People’s Democratic Party “Nur Otan”. The stated mission of the organization is the consolidation of the youth of Kazakhstan on the basis of the policy platform of the President of the country with a view to ensuring the modernization leap in the development of the country; the goal is to create a strong and authoritative political youth organization capable of leading the youth. To fulfill the mission and achieve the main goal, Zhas Otan set a number of priority tasks that determine the main directions of the organization’s work:
Theconsolidation of young people in support of the policy of the President of the country. This task implies ensuring the unification of the country’s youth on a state-patriotic basis, developing comprehensive measures to increase youth’s trust in the Nur Otan Party, and further strengthening the authority of the country’s president in the youth environment.
Creation of an effective system of youth development. Within the framework of this task, the organization developed a set of measures to ensure the effective participation of the youth wing “Zhas Otan” in the process of gaining experience of socio-economic, civil, political and other socially significant activity by young citizens of the country.
Protection of the rights and interests of young people - ensuring the completeness and quality of the implementation of rights and state guarantees for young people provided for by the current legislation.
Expansion of the social base of the NDP “Nur Otan” through the involvement of a wide range of young people in the activities of the youth wing “Zhas Otan” . The formation of a personnel reserve for the party and state bodies. The task involves the creation of a system for identifying, training and recruiting young leaders capable of becoming a recruiting staff for the Nur Otan party and state authorities.
The German sociologist Karl Mannheim determined that young people are a kind of reserve that comes to the fore when such revitalization becomes necessary to adapt to rapidly changing or qualitatively new circumstances. Dynamic societies sooner or later must activate and even organize them (resources that in traditional society are not mobilized and not integrated, but are often suppressed).
Young people, as a special age and social group, always perceived the values of culture in their own way, which at the time created young slang and shocking forms of subculture. Their representatives were hippies, beatniks, dudes in the USSR and the post-Soviet space - informal people.
Young people are a generation of people who pass through the stage of socialization, who acquire, and in more mature age have already acquired, educational, professional, cultural and other social functions.
Another different and more detailed definition was given by IS Kohn [2]: Youth is a socio-demographic group, allocated on the basis of a set of age characteristics, features of the social situation and the socio-psychological properties conditioned by both. It was this definition that later became the main in the national sociology of youth:
Youth as a specific phase, the stage of the life cycle is biologically universal, but its specific age limits, its social status and socio-psychological features are socio-historical in nature and depend on the social system, culture and the socialization patterns peculiar to a given society.
The results of some studies show that young people are generally politically motivated. More than half of young people participate in elections; many of young citizens under the age of 35 are interested in politics.
At the same time, politics is interested in young people quite intensively, especially during the period of election campaigns [3].
In politics without a strategic development plan, it would be impossible to set short-term and tactical tasks for the state, society and individual. The strategic plan is a kind of development ideology. A striking example of such a comparison can serve as the Strategic Program Kazakhstan-2030, which for Kazakhstanis has become a national idea of development, prosperity, security and improvement of well-being.
As a far-sighted politician, the head of our state N. Nazarbayev in his Message to the people of Kazakhstan “Kazakhstan-2030: Prosperity, Security and Welfare Improvement of All Kazakhstanis” in 1997 determined the course of development of the republic. The strategic program is focused on the future: time will pass quickly, and it will be a reality for today’s youth, the future generation will reap its benefits.
For the current decade, the Strategic Plan for the Development of the Republic of Kazakhstan until 2020 has been approved by the Head of State [4]. This strategic document identifies a number of tasks for the further development of the economy; the creation of conditions for a qualitative improvement of the business environment; strengthening the social component of public policy.
This provides an opportunity to systematically look at the problems of the development of the state, to approach scientifically the formulation of the strategic landmarks to be achieved, the challenges that need to be addressed, and the priorities for action at the regional, departmental and interagency levels. When developing the forecast, key aspects related to current and new external and internal threats to national security were taken into account.
State policy towards young people should create conditions that would allow the younger generation to gain their independence as soon as possible, to maximize their abilities and realize their vitality, and be ready to assume responsibility for the future of the country. The basis for a new youth policy should be full trust in youth, support of youth initiatives, and protection of rights and interests of young people. Youth movement should be free, reorganization, strict regulation inevitably leads to a decrease in its activity. The profound transformations taking place in the country make it imperative to activate the activities of all segments of the population, especially young people, while the systemic domestic policy of the state should be the regulating factor.
The process of socialization of the younger generation can not go on its own, in isolation from the processes that are taking place in modern society, at this stage of its development. In order to direct this process in the right direction, a new state youth policy is needed, the result of which would be a smooth entry of the younger generation into the market realities of the present and an awareness of the need for its active role in the process of reforming our society.
State youth policy pretends to become fundamental in the system of social and economic development of the country. At its core, youth policy is a necessary component of the development of any country.
In addition, the task of patriotic education of young people is to show the younger generation the meaning, content and goals of religious associations in Kazakhstan. It is necessary to create a new system of education of Kazakhstan’s patriotism. Propagation of national ideology, education of Kazakhstanis by stimulating the development of national cultures, languages, customs and traditions, education of national patriotism on the example of historical consciousness of Kazakh and other ethnic groups living in Kazakhstan. Such an ideology will help solve the problems of strengthening Kazakhstan’s political independence, ethnopolitical and ethno-cultural community of Kazakhstanis, moral, physical and ecological recovery of the population. It actively opposes chauvinism, separatism, nationalism, manifestations of tribalism and national isolation. It is important that the state ideology act as a healing spiritual force in all spheres of life of Kazakhstani society.
It should also be noted that the core of the new ideology of Kazakhstan is the spiritual and historical heritage of the Kazakh ethnos. It is enriched by using the humanistic, moral potential of the entire polyethnic people of Kazakhstan.
In this case, patriotism should become a priority in the education of the citizenship of the younger generation of the country. Now before us, before the state power, is the task to create a system of educating youth, based on patriotism, moral and moral integrity, human legal culture. For the modern Kazakhstan society it is important that everyone not only remembered his history, was proud of his country and understood that the happiness of everyone depends on the success of the country, but he did not remain indifferent to the events taking place in the state.
Thanks to an effective patriotic policy, today Kazakhstan has achieved a stable public consensus. Citizens of the country are unanimous in relation to the unconditional need for patriotism, which is observed in everyday life. The youth policy of modern Kazakhstan is determined by two principal factors of general order. First, the interests of the state in this historical period, which can be provided with the necessary resources. For modern Kazakhstan, this means ensuring sustainable development along the democratic path, enhancing the security of citizens, society and the state. This strategic interest requires the formation and implementation of state youth policy, because only the modern generation of young people will be able to approve and use democratic values and principles in all spheres of life of Kazakhstan society in 15-20 years. Secondly, youth policy is determined by the needs of the youth themselves, its social, economic, legal status. The current state of Kazakhstan’s youth as a special social group of the population is directly reflected both in the goals, directions, structure of the youth policy of the Republic of Kazakhstan, and on the effectiveness of its implementation [5]. The state’s activities in the sphere of youth interests and relations are quite consistent with the level of politics. The existence of specific goals and directions, their legal and resource support, management structures, their real activities in implementing the planned programs, all this indicates the existence of a well-formed state youth policy in the Republic of Kazakhstan.
In conclusion, increasing the effectiveness of the youth policy of the state of Kazakhstan will serve to improve the coordination of activities of all structures of the state and civil society involved in the implementation of youth policy. It is advisable to establish a vertical of executive power in the management of youth policy on the basis of coordination and joint work of state, regional and municipal bodies [6]. This refers to the regulatory legal, financial, information and analytical, staffing of the state youth policy. It is necessary to form a modern infrastructure of youth policy that can provide various needs and interests on the ground for young people, stimulate the development of youth socio-political centers, clubs, organizations, providing them with resource support. Prospects for successful economic development and preservation of the country’s social and political stability allow one to assume an increase in the level of rationality and effectiveness of the youth policy of the Republic of Kazakhstan in the coming years.
REFERENCES
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- Зайниева Л.Ю. Государственная молодежная политика: Казахстан в контексте мирового опыта. – Алматы: Дайк-пресс, 2006 - С.53
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- Concept of the state youth policy of the Republic of The order of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan. August 28. 1999. No.73. – Astana, 1999.
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