Is there a misconception within the rates of which the youth politically engage?

It is a widely discussed conception that young people are not as politically engaged compared to older individuals, with voting as a very prominent example. However, I want to explore how far this can be labelled as true. Are young people really not politically engaged? Or are we finally beginning to see a shift in the rates in which the youth engage politically, due to the development of technology and social media?

It is wise to pinpoint a clear definition as to what political engagement actually is. Political engagement is something that takes a variety of forms such as: participating protests and demonstrations; voting; attending campaign events (Dimock et al., 2014).

Britain’s political landscape is very much influenced by who engages the most, and how they engage. Both political participation and engagement is paramount in order for a democracy to operate sufficiently (Pontes et al, 2018). The lack in the youth’s vote could be considered a factor as to why Britain is shaped how it is today. However, it is important to consider the various ways in which the youth engage with politics over the years.

A long running study created by the British Election Study shows that there has been a steep decrease of 24.6% of young people’s electoral behaviour from 1964 to 2010 (House of Commons, 2013). Here, data implies that historically, the youths electoral participation has decreased, whereas with most other age groups, voting patterns have stayed the same.

Fig 1: Table of the turnout percentage by age at General Elections from 1964-2010 (Sloam, J. and Ehsam, 2017).

The above table implies that a mere 40% of 18-24 year-olds voted in the 2001 General Election however, the 2017 General Election featured a shock increase in youth electoral behaviour with figures rising from 43% to a dramatic 64%, in what was labelled a ‘youthquake’ – the shocking result caused by unexpected increase in the youth turnout (Sloam and Ehsam, 2017).

Fig 2: Graph comparing the age turnout of 2015 and 2017 General Elections (Sloam and Ehsam, 2017).

Therefore, recent data suggests that although there is a wide gap surrounding political engagement in voting between 18-24 year olds and over 65 year olds, there has been a steady increase in the electoral behavioural patterns of young people over the years.

Reports also show that Brexit combined with the appeal of the Labour Party and Jeremy Corbyn inspired more young people to go out and vote. Statistics suggests that  64% of 18-24 year olds voted in the EU Referendum (financialtimes.com, 2019), in which 71% voted remain.

The sudden ‘youthquake’ combined with the political participation of young people during Brexit proves that the youth have began so show more interest into using their right to vote (Sloam and Ehsam, 2017). 

Yes, statistics imply that young people are beginning to engage more in regard to voting however, they are still less likely than any other age group to appear on the electoral register and engage in political activities (Dempsey and Johnston, 2018). So, why do young people not engage as much as other age groups, and how do we solve this problem?

An area of concern is access to knowledge. Although schooling is compulsory in Britain, students were not taught about politics in schools, which links to the lack of political knowledge within young people.

Citizenship education – a political discourse, introduced within secondary schools in 2002 as a response to the lack of political engagement, aimed at transforming political culture for individuals aged 11-16 (Pontes et al, 2017).

School experience was therefore found to help increase political knowledge and political literacy, but this could improved further through offering a compulsory element dedicated to teaching students how to contact local politicians and learning how to register to vote (Pontes et al, 2017).

Young people are also consistently labelled ‘alienated’ and ‘apathetic’, due to their lack of engagement (Russell et al., 2002). Themes of apathy could be directed towards the electoral process and not politics itself, as Russell et al (2002) found that the youth felt ‘powerless’ as ‘no one’ fights for their needs.

Research conduced by Russell and others (2002) shows that the youth are actually keen to spark a dialogue with friends and family about politics. I am a strong believer that young people are actually politically engaged, however, the youth, like myself, use different mediums than other age groups, such as social media campaigns to engage politically (Russell et al., 2002).

Organisations such as UK Young Ambassadors are dedicated to push young individuals to explore the democratic electoral process.

In this current climate, we are faced with many challenges: the impact of austerity; changes to healthcare; and housing. The lack of formal political engagement creates issues for our future, as politicians prioritise issues concerning older, democratically engaging groups (Nottingham University, 2017).

Therefore it is important that our ways of engaging with politics, translate into the representative democratic system (voting!) in order to create a better future for our generation (BBC News, 2014).

So, is there actually a misconception within the rates in which young people politically engage? Yes. Although historically the youth have not engaged as much as other age groups, young people engage though unconventional platforms such as political demonstrations.

I would love to know what you think, are young people as disengaged as it is portrayed?

Bibliography and References

BBC News. (2014). Young ‘lack interest in politics’. [online] Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-26271935 (Accessed 13 Feb. 2019).

Dempsey, N. and Johnston, N. (2018). Political disengagement in the UK: who is disengaged?. House of Commons. [online] Available at: https://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/CBP-7501 (Accessed 16 Feb. 2019).

Dimock, M., Doherty, C., Kiley, J. and Oates, R. (2014). Political Polarization in the American Public. Pew Research Center. Available at: http://www.people-press.org/2014/06/12/section-5-political-engagement-and-activism/ (Accessed: 12 Feb. 19)

Ft.com. (2019). Youth turnout at general election highest in 25 years, data show | Financial Times. [online] Available at: https://www.ft.com/content/6734cdde-550b-11e7-9fed-c19e2700005f (Accessed 16 Feb. 2019).

Kimberlee, R. (2002). Why Don’t British Young People Vote at General Elections?. Journal of Youth Studies, 5(1), pp.85-98.

Pontes, A., Henn, M. and Griffiths, M. (2018). Towards a Conceptualization of Young People’s Political Engagement: A Qualitative Focus Group Study. Societies, 8(1), p.17.

Pontes, A., Henn, M. and Griffiths, M. (2017). Youth political (dis)engagement and the need for citizenship education: Encouraging young people’s civic and political participation through the curriculum. Education, Citizenship and Social Justice.

Russell, A., Fieldhouse, E., Purdam, K. and Kalra, V. (2002). Voter engagement and young people. London: Electoral Commission.

Sloam, J. and Ehsam, M. (2017). Youth Quake: Young People and the General Election. Intergenerational Foundation. [online] Available at: http://www.if.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Youth-Quake_Final.pdf (Accessed 13 Feb. 2019).

University, Nottingham. (2017). Young People, Voting and Political Engagement | Nottingham Trent University. [online] Ntu.ac.uk. Available at: https://www.ntu.ac.uk/research/impact-case-studies/young-people,-voting-and-political-engagement (Accessed 16 Feb. 2019).