Why are Young People Not Engaged in Politics?
It’s no surprise that voting turnout for 18-24 year olds is significantly lower than the 65+ age cohort (see figure 1), especially as current and proposed government policies are aimed to appeal to the ‘grey voters’ in society. Unfortunately, we live in gerontocracy state, whereby the interests and demands of the older generations take precedence over everything and everyone (Welson, 2013). Typically, political parties structure their entire manifestos in order to gain the ‘grey vote’, often ignoring the younger generation. This attitude from the government has undeniably contributed to the attitude of political indifference for young people.
Figure 1. showing 18-24-year olds and 65+ percentage of voting by party (Ipsos MORI, 2015).
From my own experience, while growing up politics equated to posh middle aged men, using language that I could not even comprehend. And in that sense, politics were reserved for elitist adults, a group I certainly was not part of. This lack of relevance, and consequently lack of interest, is suggested to be the root cause of age disparities in voting turnout (JRF, 2000). This narrow perspective has alienated young people from politics and has resulted in a lack of trust in government; an outlook of ‘why bother when it doesn’t make a difference?’.
Some may call this millennial cynicism but I believe it is bigger than that, young people are simply not aware of the political power they possess. Due to a lack of education in the subject, the youth is left to navigate this world by themselves and it is very easy to get overwhelmed, the world of politics is intimidating and incomprehensible – in fact, it is easier to avoid any involvement.
However, in 2017 there was an obvious and undeniable shift. From figure 2, it is clear that the number of votes of young people significantly increased; 18-24 year old voting turnout was up from 43% to 64% (Sloam & Ehsan (2017:3). Although that doesn’t sound very impressive, remember it is politics and even the slightest change could potentially throw an election. This surprising turn of events was labelled as “youthquake”, whereby youth turnout in the snap election caused a hung parliament (and severe embarrassment for the Tories). For the first time in 20 years, young people made a stand.
Figure 2: Turnout by age in 2015 & 2017 general elections (Sloam and Ehsam, 2017).
This surge of interest amongst young people is credited to Jeremy Corbyn, labour leader. His campaign and manifesto was youth focused, so much so the younger generation finally had something to be excited about when it came to politics. Young people felt that the elders of our country were limiting our options by only thinking of themselves and Mr Corbyn was a beacon of hope to end this gerontocracy. Although the newspapers essentially demonised Corbyn, social media was very supportive and kind to him, and as we know young people do not read the newspaper, they get their news updates from social media (The Guardian, 2017).
Therefore, social media was instrumental in bridging the gap between young people and politics, as young people are gaining their political knowledge through the active consumption of social media. Raine et al (2012) correctly claims that social media is an essential tool in engaging young people in politics because it not only allows them to participate freely but also provides an accessible ‘crash course’ into the subject – politics for dummies if you will. Consequently, Corbyn used this to his advantage and it worked, just look at this clip of thousands of people chanting their support for Corbyn, at Glastonbury of all places! (Note the “Theresa, shut the door on the way out”)
What’s Next For Young People?
After the election, where more young people voted in numbers that hadn’t been seen for decades, people began to question whether the voting age should decrease, allowing 16 years olds to participate in democracy (BBC, 2017). As previously mentioned, young people are politically alienated and in order to undo this, there needs to be a drastic change. Lowering the voting age would certainly be a step in the right direction, of reducing (and potentially eradicating) gerontocracy. Young people are equally affected by political decisions such as tuition fees, taxes, public transport etc. I remember being particularly frustrated when I turned 14 and had to pay for adult tickets on transport but had none of the rights as adults. Both labour and liberal democrat parties are committed to making this change, but the conservatives are dragging their heels. Some say this is due to fear, as we know young people don’t tend to vote for the conservatives.
Nevertheless, young people need to be engaged in politics, they need to be included and most importantly, heard.
Bibliography
BBC (2017). The Case for the Voting Age to be Lowered to 16. Available: http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/41838136/the-case-for-the-voting-age-to-be-lowered-to-16 (accessed 25/2/20)
Ipsos MORI (2015) How Britain voted in 2015. Available at:https://www.ipsos-mori.com/researchpublications/researcharchive/3575/How-Britain-voted-in-2015.aspx?view=print (Accessed: 24/2/20).
Joseph Rowntree Foundation (2000). Young People’s Politics: Political Interest and Engagement Amongst 14-24 Year Olds. York: York Publishing Services. Available: https://www.jrf.org.uk/sites/default/files/jrf/migrated/files/1859353096.pdf (Accessed 24/2/20).
Loader, B. (2011) Networking Democracy? Social Media Innovations and Participatory Politics in Information, Communication and society, volume 14, n0.6, pp. 757-769
Rainie, L., Smith, A., Schlozman, K. L., Brady, H. and Verba, S. (2012) Social Media and Political Engagement. Available from: http://www.pewinternet.org/files/old-media/Files/Reports/2012/PIP_SocialMediaAndPoliticalEngagement_PDF.pdf (Accessed 24/2/20)
Sloam, J. and Ehsan, M.R. (2017). Youth Quake: young people and the 2017 general election. Available at: http://www.if.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Youth-Quake_Final.pdf (accessed 24/2/20).
The Guardian. (2017). Young People Have Spoken. And They Said Jeremy Corbyn. Available: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jun/09/young-people-spoken-jeremy-corbyn-social-media (accessed 24/2/20).
Youtube (2017). ‘Oh, Jeremy Corbyn!’ Chant Glastonbury Compilation.Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1zLoG6YeA4 (Accessed 24/2/20).
This is an excellent blog. I liked how you used the concepts of gerontocracy, the grey vote and alienation to explain the voting gap between old and young people. I also found it interesting how you analysed different perspectives on youth and political engagement by arguing young people are becoming more politically engaged. Your social media example illustrated this well. The video was enjoyable to watch and also helped encapsulate your point that young people are pushing for change in politics. There was a good use of quantitative data, and using your own experiences really brought the blog to life. You also propose good solutions to the age inequalities in voting you mention at the beginning. I agree the voting age should be lowered!
However, you could have outlined in your first paragraph that you were addressing both how young people have traditionally rejected politics and how young people became more politically engaged with the rise of Jeremy Corbyn. This would have made your argument clearer.
Apart from that, great blog! It was a pleasure to read.
This blog was very enjoyable to read! Your video was enjoyable to watch and reiterated your point well. I loved your point about even minor changes being powerful enough to make change and throw an election. This really made me feel inspired that in a world where you may feel powerless you can make a difference. I would have been interested to hear what you thought about other forms of political engagement like marches, or protests as these are arguably more dominated by young people. But, overall, I think you shed light on an interesting issue and your argument was well supported with a range of interesting literature.