Young People and Political Engagement

young people falling into the eighteen to twenty-four age bracket have a notoriously low voter turnout, with a mere forty-three per cent of eighteen to twenty-four-year-olds voting in the twenty fifteen general election (Ipsos Mori 2015).  However, this generation is not ignorant of social issues, opting to engage in non-conventional forms of political engagement as we are significantly more likely than previous generations of young people to sign petitions, join boycotts, and participate in demonstrations (Inglehart & Welzel, 2005). So why are a generation known for making socio-political issues go viral not casting a vote, is it because of an indifference towards politics or are we alienated because of the consistent neglect from the political systems in place?

Apathy is a word we always see in the discourse surrounding the levels of mainstream political engagement with young individuals, and the argument is consistently made that in regards to politics, we are simply “apathetic, civically unaware, dissociated and excluded”(Edwards 2007). This stereotypical notion is furthered by the concept that “political disengagement is thought to affect all citizens but young people are believed to be particularly disillusioned about the major institutions of representative democracy, leaving them apathetic at best or alienated at worst” (Norris 2003). Meaning that while there is a possibility of becoming politically alienated as a young person, the onset of apathy is the best-case scenario.

The notion that a major contributing factor to the low voter turnout among young people is alienation from politics as a whole is supported by the consistent lack of effort put in by politicians to engage young people. This idea can be furthered that even when politicians do try and attempt to relate to us and take our concerns seriously, it seems that they are just token gestures in a desperate endeavour to appeal to a younger demographic so as to secure their votes. A prime example of this is Theresa May in September 2017 planned to freeze university tuition fees at £9250 and while that appears to be a positive action for students, “it is unlikely that most students viewed it the same way. A real revolution in governmental policies would be to take into account the precarious situation of many young people” (Pickard 2019). Meaning that these gestures are simply for show and do not actually serve the interests of young people. The direct impact of such groundless pledges made in an attempt to draw in voters from a younger demographic is a widely felt sense of distrust towards politicians,  this is exemplified in a study conducted by (Henn, Weinstein and Wring 2002), With fifty-four per cent of the sample sharing the sentiment that “once elected, politicians lose touch with people pretty quickly”.

Despite a previous lack of political engagement with conventional forms of politics, there arguably appears to be a slight shift in the political field appealing to young people, this is backed up by the inundation of participation from members of the younger demographic of voters in the 2017 general election, which was referred to as a “youthquake” (Travis, 2017). A major contributing factor towards this ‘youthquake’ was the efforts put in by Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour party to appeal and relate to the youth as opposed to focusing on securing the votes of members of older generations, which have a higher probability of already being loyal to political parties (Sloam 2007).  As a result of Corbyn having a severe lack of support from traditional forms of media, the campaign decided to utilise social media, and it was through social media platforms that he was able to grow his following significantly (Pickard 2018). We can see this as having worked due to the support he gained from artists that are relevant to us, and in turn, they rallied us to vote with Stormzy encouraging us to acknowledge that our “ ‘one little vote’ can quite literally tip the scale for what will be the most important election of our generation.” (Gayle 2019).

To sum up, the youth of today are disengaged from conventional forms of political engagement as a result of the political alienation’ felt which is caused by a lack of input from politicians to appeal to them, both with the issues that are important to young people but also in regards to the mediums that they engage with like social media, but it seems like there is some progress being made.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bibliography

Ipsos Mori (2015). How Britain Voted in 2015. [online]  Available at https://www.ipsos.com/ipsos-mori/en-uk/how-britain-voted-2015 [accessed 19 Feb. 2021]

 

Inglehart, R. and Welzel, C. (2005) Modernization, cultural change, and democracy: The human development sequence. Cambridge university press.

 

Edwards, K (2007). From deficit to disenfranchisement: reframing youth electoral participation. Journal of youth studies, 10(5), pp.539-555.

Norris, P. (2003). ‘Young People and Political Activism: From the Politics of Loyalties to the Politics of Choice?’. Paper presented to the Council of Europe Symposium, Young People and Democratic Institutions: From Disillusionment to Participation, Strasbourg, 27th – 28th November 2003

Henn, M. and Foard, N. (2014). Social differentiation in young people’s political participation: the impact of social and educational factors on youth political engagement in Britain. Journal of Youth Studies, 17(3), pp.360-380.

 

Weakliem, D.L. and Borch, C (2006). September. Alienation in the United States: uniform or group-specific change?. In Sociological Forum (Vol. 21, No. 3, pp. 415-438). Kluwer Academic Publishers-Plenum Publishers.

 

Pickard, S (2019). Politics, protest and young people: Political participation and dissent in 21st century Britain. Springer.

 

Henn, M., Weinstein, M. and Wring, D (2002). A generation apart? Youth and political participation in Britain. The British Journal of Politics & International Relations, 4(2), pp.167-192.

 

Travis, A. (2017). The youth for today: how the 2017 election changed the political landscape. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/jun/09/corbyn-may-young-voters-labour-surge [Accessed 20 Feb. 2019].

 

Sloam, J. (2007) Rebooting Democracy: Youth Participation in Politics in the UK in Parliamentary Affairs, volume 60, no. 4, pp. 548-567.

 

Pickard,S.  (2018). Young people re-generating politics in times of crises. Palgrave Macmillan, pp.120

 

Gayle,D. (2019). Stormzy backs Labour in election with call to end austerity.[online] The Guardian. Available at : https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/nov/25/stormzy-backs-labour-in-election-with-call-to-end-austerity [Accessed 5 Mar. 2021]