What Drives Young People Into Opposition Parties Under Hybrid Regimes? A Comparison of Hong Kong and Singapore

Abstract

Research on youth participation in opposition parties under hybrid regimes is limited. This article explores and compares the contextual factors influencing young people to join opposition parties in the hybrid regimes of Hong Kong and Singapore. Based on life history interviews with 19 young opposition party members between the ages of 18 and 29 in both polities, this study identified seven significant factors. They are the characteristics of the opposition parties themselves, significant political events, politics‐related university experiences, media influence, voluntary organizations, family influence, and politics‐related secondary school experiences. This suggests that some favorable factors still exist for opposition parties in hybrid regimes to recruit young talents. This study also found that although most factors are shared by participants of both Hong Kong and Singapore, their relative importance and contents can be different, which may reflect the different types of hybrid regimes that these two societies respectively have.

Collective Protest and Expressive Action Among University Students in Hong Kong: Associations Between Offline and Online Forms of Political Participation

“…The rise of political activism is also signified by young adults' awareness of political values and rights, an increasing willingness to challenge the political authority and mainstream social and political values, and the use of radical tactics (Lam, 2018). Ng (2016) further showed that political events and the media are particularly important influences in young people's decisions to join opposition parties in flawed democracies such as Hong Kong. European research suggests that users of digital media and participants in collective protests also appear more willing to cast a protest vote (Mosca and Quaranta, 2017), particularly if they are dissatisfied with specific policy issues (Birch and Dennison, 2019).…”

How do ideas and discourses construct youth policies? The case of Hong Kong

“…On the one hand, civic liberties are generally enjoyed by Hong Kong citizens, such as the freedom of speech and demonstrations. On the other, only half of the seats in the Legislative Council are directly elected by Hong Kong citizens through election as "geographical constituency"; therefore the opposition parties cannot win the majority power over the pro-China and pro-establishment parties (Cheng, 2016;Ng, 2016). Although electoral democracy is partially practised, the real power of governance is centralised in the hands of bureaucrats, economic elites and pro-government parties.…”

“…It is revealed that the majority of young people are "disengaged individuals" whilst the "critical citizens" constitute the least. Moreover, the driving forces underlying young activism are diverse, which is subject to the influences of political events, the public and social media, and education experiences (Ng, 2016). Hence, the landscape of youth politics is anything but straightforward.…”