Are young people politically disengaged?
Over the last few years, I have noticed an increase in engagement from young people in the democratic political system. This could be due to my social circle, or wider structural issues, but the change is visible nonetheless. In the course of the last decade youth (dis) engagement has become an area of concern for academics and policymakers alike. This generation of young people has been labelled a highly self-interested demographic, who’s engagement with formal politics is complex and nuanced Henn and Foard (2014). However, with Britain moving towards a more individualistic society, it is no surprise that young people are looking to the future more innovatively. These supposed conflicting value systems embolden a break away from traditional political participation. This begs the question: are young people disconnected from politics?
Shabi (2020) postulates that the boomer generation has “reaped the advantages of free education, thriving industry, stable jobs and affordable homes”, leaving millennials far more disadvantaged than their parents, the modifications to tuition fees as a result of marketising Higher Education, insecure work and a surge in housing prices, may all help us gauge the prevalence of the obvious lack of political enthusiasm amongst young people. Even so, is it unfair to label young people politically apathetic? Fox (2015) ponders on whether political apathy or political alienation best describes why young people have always been found to be less engaged and active in politics. Suggesting that millennials are participating informally in “cause-worthy” political issues but oppose traditional political activity such as voting. Perhaps young people are trying to break away from conventional party politics which doesn’t serve their social liberal interests.
The current political landscape in the United Kingdom has notably contributed to the influx of politically enthusiastic young people. Age polarization became the most dominant factor in determining voter turnout as a great number of young people turned out to vote in The 2017 General Election, “ending two decades of disproportionately low turnout among younger voters” Burn-Murdoch (2017) with a swing to Labour among under 44s Ipsos MORI (2017). The “huge surge in youth political engagement” Sloam and Henn (2019) in the face of political instability has been labelled as a “youthquake”. This unexpected rise in young “cosmopolitans” voting for labour demonstrates that labour has penetrated this demographic and is in line with their “relaxed attitudes towards immigration, and support for the idea of cultural diversity” Sloam and Henn (2019).
Figure 2.0 exhibits the decline in voter turn-out for The Labour Party amongst 18-24 years olds in comparison to 2017 but figures are still higher than the Conservative Party. YouGove (2019)
Yet, this hypothesis was debunked by The 2019 General Elections, as Labour’s “ambiguous” stance on Brexit lost them some of their young voters to other political parties like Liberal Democrat’s who demonstrated their “unequivocal support for Remain” Sloam and Henn (2019). This is clear evidence that young people are driven by what Norris (2001) identifies as ‘cause-oriented politics’ and focus on specific issues that affect them Fox (2015). This reinforces the idea that young voters are individualistic and have a propensity to focus on issues they see as immediate, in this case, travel fluidity within the EU, Education and The NHS. Additionally, “young people feel they are uniquely isolated or even excluded from a self-serving political system which is reluctant to acknowledge it’s limitations.” Mycock and Tonge (2012). From my own experience, I have noticed that some of my peers have taken their voices to social media as a political platform, being a digitally advanced generation allows them to take part and voice their opinions without engaging in conventional methods of participation as they feel overlooked in that arena.
Figure 2.0 is an example of Twitter encouraging their young user to vote in the GE 2019 (Twitter, 2019)
According to a poll undertaken by IPSOS MORI (2015) More than a third (34%) of those aged 18-24 said that reading something on social media was likely to influence their vote Sedghi (2015). This adhears for the idea that young people go to social media to enhance their political literacy, and as the hardest Cohort to politically engage with, political figures such as Jeremy Corbyn are using social media to reach out to potential young voters through platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. According to Southwell (2017) “the Labour Party leader has successfully infiltrated the popular culture of Britain like no politician in recent history” which in turn resulted in hoards of youngsters voting for him.
The use of social media suggests that young people are moving towards a modern approach when it comes to political involvement, and even though their turnout rates are Lagging behind older voters it doesn’t necessarily mean that they are apathetic. Although social media may not be the only way to measure or increase political eagerness, Corbyn demonstrated in the 2017 GE that social media can be used as a tactful propaganda tool to infiltrate young people to help boost voter turnout. Future political campaigns should look to social media platforms to have progressive political discourse with millennials so they feel less peripheral in decisions that will affect their future.
Bibliography:
- Henn, M., 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, 360-380, DOI: 10.1080/13676261.2013.830704 https://doi.org/10.1080/13676261.2013.830704
- Yeginsu, C. (2019) Young voters helped Upen Last U.K. Election. Can it Happen Again ?. The New York Times. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/08/world/europe/young-voters-uk-election-brexit.html
- Fox, Stuart (2015) Apathy, alienation and young people: the political engagement of British millennials. PhD thesis, University of Nottingham.
- Andrew Mycock and Jonathan Tonge, ‘The party politics of youth citizenship and democratic engagement’, Parliamentary Affairs, 2012, 65:1, p. 139. Avaialble at: http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/30532/1/Final%20Corrected%20V
- Ball, J., Clark,. (2013) Generation Self: What do young people really care about?. The Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/mar/11/generation-self-what-young-care-about
- Henn, M., Weinstein, M., & Forrest, S. (2005). Uninterested youth? Young people’s attitudes towards party politics in Britain.Political studies, 53(3), 556-578. Available at: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1467-9248.2005.00544.x
- Derksen, N., Falconi, F, M., Jayme, S., Worsech, C. (2018) Increasing Youth Voter Turnout. London School of Economics and Political Science. Avaialble at: http://www.lse.ac.uk/PBS/assets/documents/Increasing-Youth-Voter-Turnout.pdf
- Skinner, G., Dr. Mortimore, R. (2017) How Britain voted in the 2017 elections. Ipsos MORI. Available at: https://www.ipsos.com/ipsos-mori/en-uk/how-britain-voted-2017-election
- Sloam, J., Henn, M. (2019) Young Cosmopolitans and the deepening of the intergenerational divide following the 2019 general election. London School of Economics and Political Science. Avaialble at: https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/young-cosmopolitans-and-ge2019/
- McDonnell, M., Curtis, C. (2019) How Britain voted in the 2019 general election. YouGove. Available at: https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/articles-reports/2019/12/17/how-britain-voted-2019-general-election
- Skinner, G. (2015) A third of young people think social media will influence their vote. Ipsos MORI. available at: https://www.ipsos.com/ipsos-mori/en-uk/third-young-people-think-social-media-will-influence-their-vote
- Sedghi, A. (2015) A third of young people think social media will influence their vote. The Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2015/mar/10/a-third-of-young-people-think-social-media-will-influence-their-vote
- Southwell, F. (2017) How Corbyn Infiltrated popular culture. Incite Journal. Available at: http://incitejournal.com/opinion/how-corbyn-infiltrated-popular-culture/