Concerns exist that young citizens attach less importance to democracy compared to older citizens, yet comprehensive insight into how the young perceive and value democracy is scarce. Given that adolescence is a formative period for political attitudes, this is a pivotal life phase to examine how adolescents’ democratic support develops – especially in relation to education, which is an important driver of political attitudes. This study presents data from the Dutch Adolescent Panel on Democratic Values (DAPDV) study that follows adolescents during lower secondary education in the Netherlands. Findings reveal that Dutch adolescents largely embrace democratic values like freedom of speech, and support for representative or direct democracy. Interestingly, political and institutional trust show a decline, which can signal that support for politicians is not unconditional. From the beginning of secondary education, results show persistent educational differences in support for democratic values. This echoes existing educational cleavage in Dutch society regarding democratic support. These findings suggest that differences in democratic commitment manifest prior to secondary education and originate in students’ social and cultural backgrounds. The question remains whether secondary education perpetuates or diminishes these disparities, underlining the importance of future longitudinal research.

In this article the main question is if care for elderly people meets the justice criteria guaranteeing ‘participatory parity’ as formulated by the political philosopher Nancy Fraser (1989). After introducing justice as participatory parity the article elaborates the ambivalent relationship of care for elderly with concepts as bodily fragility, vulnerability and dependency, and its consequences for participation on equal footing. Then we explore two dominant European discourses on care for elderly, respectively the ‘Long-Term Care’- and the ‘Active Ageing’-discourse, each inspiring EU Member States’ struggle with providing ‘just’ care to ageing populations. Although social care is a Member States’ issue, not belonging to EU jurisdiction, the EU gives ambivalent direction to policy reforms via agenda setting, advice and program subsidies due to the two struggling discourse logics. We show this ambivalence by presenting gaps and biases in long-term care for elderly people in several European countries. Finally, we present, on basis of a cross-national study on care practices, implications of failing care policies and current discourses for older care-receivers and their care workers. The article concludes with an alternative care-regime based on justice as participatory parity.

Dutch society is ageing. The growing number of elderly people is causing a growth in the demand for care, while the necessary care must be provided by a smaller group of healthcare professionals. The use of e-health can provide a solution by increasing efficiency and improving services, as a result of which policymakers are increasingly focusing on the use of e-health. However, healthcare professionals remain essential in service provision as well as in the digital transformation. This explorative study focuses on the experiences of healthcare professionals with the use of e-health by examining the perceived influence of the use of e-health on their wish to continue working in healthcare, job satisfaction and autonomy. The findings demonstrate that digital communication platforms, health apps and sensor technology can contribute to the job satisfaction of healthcare professionals, but that the connection between the technologies and perceived autonomy is less clear. Moreover, even though e-health does not contribute to the desire to continue working in the healthcare sector directly, this desire can be enhanced indirectly through experiences of job satisfaction and autonomy. These preliminary findings provide new academic insights and offer policymakers concrete tools to shape a sustainable healthcare landscape.