As youth will clearly play a significant role in the field of Cambodia’s future politics, the parties strive to increase youth participation within their party structure, focussing in particular on developing their youth wings. While youth wings in Cambodia are still a field of progress, in Germany they already play a major role in politics. They give youth a voice regarding the decisions being made about their future. The paper provides the reader a comparative analysis of party youth wings in Cambodia and Germany, by giving an overview of common and distinctive features and thus, showing the broad range of possibilities for youth participation in politics.

The surveyed Cambodian youth wings are the CPP and CNRP Youth Wing and for Germany, the Young Union (CDU/CSU), the Young Socialists (SPD), the Left Youth (The Left) and the Green Youth (Alliance ‘90/The Greens). This paper elaborates on the organization and institutional structure of the surveyed youth wings, their political platform and practical work.

Author Johannes Vogel is a student of Social Sciences, Law and Economics at the University of Erfurt. He worked for the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung Cambodia as an intern from November 2015 until February 2016.