Over the years there has been a downward trend in young people’s conventional political engagement, as well as a lowering trust in politicians (Sloam 2012, Martin 2012). However, I am arguing that young adults are politically engaged. To do this, I will look at young people’s conventional and un-conventional political involvement. Do you think young people care less about politics nowadays? Let us know in the comments!
Personally, I’ve always been interested in politics. Some theorists, however, argue that young adults of today are politically disengaged (Australia. Senate, 2014). The fear is that this will later result in political alienation and a rejection of the political system. Political engagement is defined as the process where citizens select and sanction their leaders, as well as a way to influence governments (World Bank Group 2016, Lochocki 2010). I will attempt to deeper explore young people’s political engagement, where young people are defined as those aged from 18 to 24.
In the 2019 U.K. general election it emerged a demographic division within the public. 47 percent of those aged 18-24 voted, whereas 74 percent over 65 voted (Ipsos, 2019). As you get older there is therefore an increasing chance that you will vote (Goerres, 2007). As the voters are generally older people, they can largely dictate governmental policies, where ‘grey issues’, such as pension are put on the political agenda. These issues largely don’t resonate with young people and consequently distance them further from politics.
The graph below explains voting intentions for the 2017 U.K. general election. It shows how older people most likely vote Conservative, whereas young people most likely vote Labour (Curtis, 2017). This creates a sense of political polarisation and divide within the public (British Election Study, 2021). The 2017 result of a Conservative government was partly due to more older than younger people voting. To get into power, politicians focus on those who vote, namely older people. Governments therefore have a hard time responding to the needs of the groups who don’t, which creates a sense of hopelessness for young people as their issues are seemingly not listened to. This can reinforce non-voting behaviours. Some of the main issues facing young people’s today are the market slowdown of home ownership and the gig economy, where both issues involves a sense of great risk for the individual (Gardiner and Bell, 2019). When young people feel that such important issues are not adequately addressed by the government, the feeling of risk can create a sense of desperation and further distrust of political systems.
Dermody et al. (2010) explain how young adults in the U.K. are, in general, distrustful of politicians. If you can you think of a reason why, make a suggestion in the comments! Young people’s absence from electoral processes such as voting, must not be seen as the younger generation being less political. Because rather interestingly, young people are finding new ways of political influence (McDonald and Popkin, 2001). Non-electoral forms of political participation are where the youth shine (Lochocki, 2010)!
Young people are present in non-conventional political movements such as the school strikes for climate and the Black Lives Matter movements. These forms of political participation normally focus on one specific issue and provides a sense of agency for the participants. This is known as ‘episodic engagement’ and is in stark contrast to how a political party works (Lochocki, 2010).
Even though young people are politically engaged in their own sense, voting is still regarded as the most influential way to affect politics. As a result of growing up in a globalised world, today’s perception of political engagement does not seem to fit young people’s lives as society experiences an increased notion of individualism. Young people therefore seem to have a looser relationship with structural institutions, such as governments (Lochocki, 2010). Political engagement has however, nothing to do with the individual’s shortcomings, rather it is the inadequate structural forces that makes it difficult to engage politically.
Young people are not politically disengaged, but their absence from the election process is worrying. Maybe the political system has to be reorganised in such a way that it responds best to the population, where a deeper emphasis is put on non-electoral political participation? However, voting is still an essential part of a democracy and should not be dismissed. Introducing compulsory attendance for first-time voters is a way to increase young participation. Additionally, providing political youth parties with more resources could help decrease the notion of distrust by enabling an environment for young people to discuss collective issues. A clearer and better structured form of Citizenship Education in schools could enhance people’s political socialisation from a young age. Political participation from all age groups is crucial for our democracy, especially in a time where the rise of extremists, global warming and globalisation are affecting our lives increasingly.
As I have attempted to demonstrate through this post, young people are far from politically disengaged. However, voting is still seen as the most effective way for political influence and therefore electoral participation matters. Along with political distrust, the political agenda, episodic engagement and increased individualism is all making it more difficult for young people to vote.
What do you think, do you agree?
I’ll see you in the comments!
Talk to you soon,
Johanne
References:
Australia, Senate. (2014) Political Engagement among the Young in Australia*. Available at: https://www.aph.gov.au/sitecore/content/Home/About_Parliament/Senate/Powers_practice_n_procedures/pops/pop60/c03 (Accessed at: 21.02.21).
British Election Study (2021) Age and voting behaviour at the 2019 General Election. Available at: https://www.britishelectionstudy.com/bes-findings/age-and-voting-behaviour-at-the-2019-general-election/#.YDTlWC3JJQI (Accessed at: 23.02.21).
Curtis, C. (2017) How Britain voted at the 2017 general election. Available at: https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/articles-reports/2019/10/31/2019-general-election-demographics-dividing-britai (Accessed at: 23.02.21)
Dermody J., Hanmer-Lloyd, S. and Scullion, R. (2010). Young People and Voting Behaviour: Alienated Youth and (or) an Interested and Critical Citizenry? European Journal of Marketing. 44(3-4) pp. 421–435.
Gardiner, L. and Bell, T. (2019). Britain Beyond Brexit. New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons Ltd
Goerres, A. (2007). Why are Older People More Likely to Vote? The Impact of Ageing on Electoral Turnout in Europe. The British Journal of Politics and International Relations. 9(1) pp. 90-121.
Ipsos (2019): How the voters voted in the 2019 election. Available at: https://www.ipsos.com/sites/default/files/ct/news/documents/2019-12/general-election-2019-poll-aggregate-v8.pdf (Accessed at: 15.02.21).
Lochocki, T. (2010). Trends, Causes and Patterns of Young People’s Civic Engagement in Western Democracies: A Review of Literature. Centre for Research on Civil Society and Voluntary sector.
Martin, A. J. (2012). Young People and Politics: Political Engagement in the Anglo-American Democracies. London: Routledge.
McDonald, M. and Popkin, S. (2001). The Myth of the Vanishing Voter. American Political Science Review. 95(4) pp. 963-974.
Sloam, J. (2012). New Voice, Less Equal: The Civic and Political Engagement of Young People in the United States and Europe. Comparative Political Studies. 47(5) pp. 663-688.
World Bank Group. (2016). Making politics work for development: harnessing transparency and citizen engagement. Washington, DC: World Bank Group. Available at: http://pubdocs.worldbank.org/en/999311464019076764/Making-Politics-Work-for-Development.pdf (Accessed: 12.02.2021)
Hi, this was a great read!
I completely agree with you! Young people are politically engaged, just not predominantly through voting and because of this many political parties do not focus on any issues that young people are interested in.
You’d think Politicians would realise that speaking more on youth’s issues would lead to more younger votes, seems only Labour has done this, and looking at your graph on voter intention by age you can see that it has made a difference!
Labour has focused more on youth issues and also interacts with us through social media adverts and supporting protest movements, they interact with our ways of engaging with politics and it leads to vote surges.
Check out this BBC article- it sums up all of Labour’s movements to create the youth voter surge in 2017. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-40244905
Voting is effective for political influence although I do believe in this society, newer ways of political engagement needs to be respected. Although of course young people need to vote- it is worrying, like you mentioned- maybe more politicians should take a page out of Labour’s book and engage in ways that create engagement with young people, not just the focus on ‘grey issues’. This should help remove some of the barriers around young people voting.
Hi, Gemma – thank you so much for taking your time to both read my blog and leaving a comment! I am so glad to hear that you enjoyed it.
I completely agree with what you’re saying! Why politicians aren’t doing whatever it takes to get more young people to be politically engaged, in particular when it comes to voting, is very difficult for me to understand. We – the youth of this country, are the ones who one day will inherit the political issues and problems the country is currently facing. Therefore, I think it’s so important that young people are able to shape how the outlook of these policies will look like. Politicians should therefore do everything within their powers to make it easier for us to vote. We are the future!
As you say, Labour is arguably the party who mostly speak for young people. Therefore, it’s not difficult to understand the political divide that has emerged between young and older voters in the UK, where older people vote Conservative and younger people vote Labour. This divide means that there’s not a party which can truly speak for the population as a whole, both old and young alike. Consequently, this divide reinforces this excising difference between old and young voters.
Thank you for adding the article link, it was a good and informational read! Not surprisingly, Labour’s use of social media as a campaigning strategy worked well with getting young people to vote in the 2015 election. I think Labour’s use of social media also reflects their ability to understand how to reach young people’s attention – even when it comes to political issues. Which also shows why young voters tend to vote Labour. Especially their use of parodies might have been used as a tool to show how politics doesn’t always have to be so serious.
It was really interesting to hear your thoughts!
Johanne
Hi Johanne,
An interesting take on young people and political engagement. I agree that indeed young adults are politically engaged, they just take a different approach rather than following the traditional standard i.e. Voting!
A key example of this is the 2020 A Level protests that took place in Westminster. Students and teachers protesting on the streets clearly demonstrated that the young minority feel more politically engaged when they take on their own form of political activism that they feel can enable them to voice their opinion and political views!
Here is a link to a video of the protest: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Cgb_wXR4ec
Like you said, the absence of young people from the election process is indeed a concern. A 2018 survey had actually found that 18-24 years reported low levels of knowledge of politics but claimed they would like to be involved in decision-making. So in reality, we can not say young people are ‘politically disengaged’, as they are unfortunately not involved as much in politics as they wish to be. Here is a link to the briefing paper: https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-7501/
Overall, a nice and engaging blog 🙂
Hi, Zainab! Thank you for commenting on my blog.
I agree! Young people just simply have a different way of showing their political interest, and within a functioning democracy I think there must be room for such differences. However, voting is arguably deemed the most influential way to influence democratic decisions. Therefore, young people are missing great opportunities to have their say in political matters when they obtain from participating in the electoral voting process.
I find the 2018 survey you mention interesting. It is so sad that young people want to be a part of the decision-making process, but for different reasons are unable to participate due to a lack of knowledge. To shift this ongoing trend, I think it is important that the government put a greater emphasis on getting young people interested in conventional politics. This could be done through putting more resources in to the school system, in particular citizenship education. It is important to also note that young people are far from one coherent category as young people’s characteristics are greatly affecting one’s ability to vote. As age is already deemed a negative characteristic when it comes to voting, additional ‘disadvantages’ such as social class, ethnicity, gender, political socialisation and schooling, are all making it difficult for young people’s ability to be politically engaged.
Also – thanks for adding the links, I found them both really interesting!
Hi Johanne,
Yes the survey is interesting! Citizenship education is a great example! As a student, I think the government should also implement a school day that is dedicated to learning about conventional politics. This can give an insight to what politics is really like. After all we are the next generation!
Absolutely, that sounds like a great idea! School children should absolutely learn about politics from an early age. This will help them to internalise a political understanding which, undoubtedly, will benefit them later in life.
Hi Johanne!
This was such an interesting read, I really enjoyed it!
Your attempt to demonstrate through your post how young people are not politically disengaged really came thru!
You wrote that young people are not politically disengaged, but there is an absence from young adults in the election process. I believe that politics can be complicated to understand and finding a party that represent your own views can be challenging, however your suggestion on providing young political parties with more resources was an excellent idea! I think this would help to get more young people to engage since they are then given a trust and help young people to discuss politics with their fellow youngster.
You ask a question about why young people in general feel a distrust towards politicians, I can give you a reason why I think this is; I believe that many young people feel a distrust to politicians because they don’t feel like their voice matter. When older politicians speak about the future and young people, they are not actually addressing issues young people are engaged in. Also the small representation of young people getting elected can feel like a hopeless cause for young people, when we are not elected, this can feel like a distrust to us as citizens.
Hi, Stine!
Thanks for leaving a comment on this post about age and political engagement. I am glad to hear that you found it interesting :). The aspect of authority is important, as young people can indeed feel intimidated by their older counterparts as age is truly strongly related to age. Consequently, this only creates additional barriers for young people’s ability to engage in political matters as they might feel invalidated as a result.
Increasing the financial aid to the youth political parties is indeed important as it could enable political confidence and generate new topics of political conversation. Additionally, and I do not think I can stress this highly enough, the school system is such a crucial place to start in order to get young people politically engaged. Therefore, governmental emphasis must increasingly be put on the role of the school and the education system in order to achieve political engagement by all groups in society, not just in terms of age. Equality is undoubtedly a key part to a functioning democracy! As you say – many young people do not think their political voice matters. Therefore, through the school system, young people should be given the tools they need in order to gain political knowledge and confidence. I am by no means an expert – but building on my own personal understandings of the issue, I think that the school system must undergo significant structural changes in order to create an equal society where there is an increased political understanding for all societal groups.
It was really interesting to hear your thoughts!
Hi, Johanne,
This approach to the relationship between young people and political engagement was very interesting. Specifically, it was interesting to see the deviation from typical writing about the topic that somewhat stereotypes young people as politically apathetic. In the blog post you raised the query as to why the youth have an overall lack of trust when it comes to politicians, in my personal opinion a possible reason for this is that those in political positions of power simply don’t engage with issues that are relevant to young people or they make an attempt to solve them on a surface level, a great example of this is when in 2017 we saw Theresa May announce her plans to freeze university tuition fees at £9250 which was an act that looked positive on the surface but didn’t actually address the issue the young people were fighting for with at £9250 was simply too high of a starting number for many working class students and that the worries of future debt from this put a lot of working class students off from going to University.
Linked below is a link to a great article that explores the viewpoint of students in regards to how Theresa May approached the topic of university tuition fees.
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2017/oct/02/tories-lie-consistently-students-on-theresa-mays-tuition-fee-plans
Hi, Johanne,
This approach to the relationship between young people and political engagement was very interesting. Specifically, it was interesting to see the deviation from typical writing about the topic that somewhat stereotypes young people as politically apathetic. In the blog post you raised the query as to why the youth have an overall lack of trust when it comes to politicians, in my personal opinion a possible reason for this is that those in political positions of power simply don’t engage with issues that are relevant to young people or they make an attempt to solve them on a surface level, a great example of this is when in 2017 we saw Theresa May announce her plans to freeze university tuition fees at £9250 which was an act that looked positive on the surface but didn’t actually address the issue the young people were fighting for with at £9250 was simply too high of a starting number for many working class students and that the worries of future debt from this put a lot of working class students off from going to University.
Linked below is a link to a great article that explores the viewpoint of students in regards to how Theresa May approached the topic of university tuition fees.
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2017/oct/02/tories-lie-consistently-students-on-theresa-mays-tuition-fee-plans
Hi, Amrit! Thanks for leaving a comment on my post. I am glad to hear that you found it stimulating.
I could not agree more. Politicians do not engage adequately with young people, which is why so many youngsters fall outside the political world. The fact that the then PM, Theresa May, did not see that having such a high starting number for the tuition fees was problematic, comes to show the disengagement politicians have with young people. And as you say, not only is this example of tuition fee a disadvantage for young people, but it will also consequently have accelerating affects as it will disproportionally affect those from a lower socio-economic background.
Having said that, I think that this example of tuition fees could be used as a wake-up call for young people. Hopefully, young people can now understand that being politically active can have important societal benefits for oneself and one’s life. By using one’s vote, one can increasingly influence the political agenda and policy reforms.