Approaches explaining the dynamics of youth crisis participation coincide with the binary nature of political engagement among youth, thus solely examining young’s activity in light of the general understanding of political participation as a cornerstone democratic right. What remains unknown in this constellation is the extent of reaction and the reasons behind such responses. This is why this qualitative study aims to investigate the causes of youth engagement in Covid-19 related protests and how it developed in response to government action. It does so through a series of twenty interviews conducted across BiH in the first six months of 2021. The primary focus is on two activities – protest for social cause and expression of opinion. The findings reveal that the action-reaction patterns were not independent occurrences, but evolved through three different stages each of which was marked by specific traits and depended on distinctive causes. The article points to a novel dimension of youth participation – the importance of the ‘ordinariness’ and the response as pushed by ‘standby citizens’ with a turnout which points that the country is dealing with a new generation of politically active citizens.
