Young people and political (in)activism: why don't young people vote?

Abstract

Continued experimentation with methods to make the process of voting easier signals a growing concern amongst politicians that the public is becoming increasingly disaffected from politics in Britain.However, these government initiatives may be failing to tackle the real problem-that the electorate appear to find the business of politics uninviting and irrelevant. In this article we examine the results from a nationwide survey of over 700 young people, and find that this generation, whilst supportive of these new electoral methods, are unlikely to be persuaded to turnout to vote while they continue to feel marginalised from the political process.

Young People, Political Participation and Trust in Britain

“…The responses of recent UK governments have been to legislate a programme of political reforms designed to reconnect the electorate -and young people in particular -to the political system (Henn and Weinstein, 2006). This has included for instance the introduction of statutory citizenship classes at schools in England in 2002, to educate young people in the nature and practices of democratic participation.…”

The analysis of viewpoints of geography students at the University of Zagreb on the political situation and relations in Croatia

“…Kao posljedica političke neaktivnosti vlada ši-roka zabrinutost među političarima i službeni-cima da će ove očite generacije političkih skeptika svoju duboku averziju prema političkom procesu prenijeti u kasnije faze svojega života i s vremenom zamijeniti građanski orijenitrane starije generacije te napokon staviti na kušnju legitmnost samoga političkog sustava (Henn, Weinstein, 2006.). Tu tvrdnju potkrepljuju velikim dijelom i rezultati ove ankete koja ukazuje najvećim dijelom rezultata da anketirani studenti nemaju političkih ambicija, da ih politika ne zanima (redovito je prati samo 21 % studenata), dok ih je čak 86 % politički neaktivno, a 72 % ima mišljenje da je djelovanje političara više negativno nego pozitivno.…”

“…As a consequence of political inactivity of young people, there is a widespread concern among politicians and officials that this apparent generation of political sceptics will carry their deep aversion to the political process with them, in time replacing the more civic-oriented older generations, and ultimately calling into question the legitimacy of the political system itself (Henn, Weinstein, 2006). This statement in large part confirms this survey which showed that students do not have political ambitions, that politics does not interest them (on everyday basis only 21% of students follow politics), while 86% of them are politically inactive and 72% of them think that politicians have more negative than positive influence on society.…”

And After That We All became Like Brothers

“…The decline in voting and party membership among young people around the world has provoked theorizing on new forms of political participation among young people like 'expert citizens', 'everyday makers' and 'self-actualizing citizens' (Bang, 2005;Bennett, 2012;Vromen and Collin, 2010). This scholarship states that rather than being apolitical, young people distance themselves from formal political institutions such as party membership and voting (Henn and Weinstein, 2006;O'Toole, Marsh and Jones, 2003). They criticize a narrow conceptualization of the 'political' in research on young people's political participation, which misses alternative forms of participation (O'Toole, Marsh and Jones, 2003;Pfaff, 2009).…”