
As the YDC releases the Policy Tracker study, three key themes in youth political participation come to light. This is the second of the three. This section focuses on youth participation in voting and elections, addressing a global decline in electoral engagement among youth. The analysis explores the factors influencing voting behaviour, from trust in political institutions to predictors of voting habits. In addition, it examines the debate regarding lowering the voting age to 16, assessing how it might reverse the trend of decreasing participation of youth in electoral politics.
“Youth participation in voting and elections” covers the engagement of young people in electoral politics. It outlines the general decline in this area across the globe, then looks at voting predictors and research on votes at 16.
Decline in youth electoral participation
It is widely agreed across academic literature that young people are turning away from joining political parties and voting, engaging in these activities less than their elders as well as less than elders in their youth (Pickard et al 2018; Pilkington et al 2015; Cammaerts 2014; Flanagan 2009). The cause of this decline in voting and party membership is much more debated and less certain. Apathy amongst young people was originally believed to be a driving factor linked to increasing individualism and rising risk in the lives of young people (Forbrig 2005; Henn et al 2002,). However, this argument is now increasingly rejected on the basis that young people are turning away from traditional forms of participation and turning toward alternative or unconventional forms. It is argued that the decline in engagement of young people with voting (and other traditional forms) is a result of declining or lack of trust and faith in formal political bodies (Foa et al 2020; Farthing 2010; Harris et al 2010; Tumenggung et al 2005) as well as political representatives and parties (Bastedo 2015; Pilkington et al 2015). This is accompanied by a belief from young people that they are unable to have a meaningful effect on political decision-making through conventional means (Foa et al 2020). It is argued that young people are thus politically interested and motivated, and though they are supportive of democratic values and democracy, they are unconvinced by the current way formal political structures operate (Chryssochoou et al 2017; Cammaerts 2014; Saunders 2009; Sloam 2007). This issue is not apathy, or lack of belief in democracy from young people, but a perception that current democracies are not well governed and do not represent the interests of young people.
Caution should be taken when considering this trend given within individual countries it is clear the local and regionally specific context, such as the age of a democracy (Kitanova 2018) can be a dominant influence on youth participation. Comparative survey research, (on which most voting research is based) tends to neglect the social context in which political participation is set, and hence cannot fully conceive of or explain the differences in its forms and risks imposing researchers’ own perspectives on what participation is and should be (Forbrig 2005). It is therefore important not to transplant findings driven by research in the Global North to other contexts without critique. For example, Resnick et al (2011) find that Africa’s youth are less likely to vote than older generations but also less likely to turn to alternative forms of participation such as protest.
Acquiring voting habits
A sub-theme of this area of research is predictors of voting behaviour. It is argued that a first election leaves a footprint on the ongoing behaviour of a voter, influencing their habits in future elections, with the voting behaviour a person adopts in young adulthood likely to remain in further life (Dinas 2012; Aldrich et al. 2011; Gerber et al. 2003; Plutzer 2002). Political ideologies are forming in adolescence when personal values, world views, and political attributions appear to be highly concordant (Flanagan et al 1999). Predictors of voting habits are understood to be levels of political interest, political knowledge, perceived effectiveness of voting (Campbell 2019, Levy et al 2019; Chryssochoou et al 2017, Zani et al 2012), parental/familial political interest, knowledge, and practices, (Deimer et al 2019; Barrett et al 2019; Mcintosh et al 2019) and having friends who are politically engaged (Barrett et al 2019). Alongside this, level of education and social economic background are all strongly linked to voting behaviour.
Votes at 16
Lowering the voting age to 16 is a further area of research, but findings coming from this field are not decisive. Some scholars have identified lowering the voting age may lead to an increase in youth voting, whereas others have identified it does not, and there are numerous debates about the ongoing nature of the impact. On balance, it is clear that every change of electoral law needs to be considered within the political and national context in which it occurs. Research suggests lowering the voting age can, in some instances, be used as a tool to increase youth voter engagement, alongside a package of other policies and measures but lowering the voting age on its own is not a solution to reinvigorate democracy (see Eighorn et al 2019 for an overview).