As the YDC releases the Literature & Policy Review of the Youth Political Participation study, three key themes in youth political participation come to light. This is the first of the three. This section explores the involvement of youth in political affairs, encompassing traditional forms such as representation in public office, membership in political parties, and voting, but also alternative forms of participation. As young people are underrepresented in public office compared to their share of the population, this section examines barriers to youth engagement, strategies for improvement, and emerging trends in political participation, including digital activism and youth-led movements.
“Youth in political affairs” covers academic research, youth representation within public office, membership of political parties and the traditional forms of political participation, alongside voting. As well as this the chapter addresses alternative forms of political participation.
Representation within public office
Research on the involvement of young people within public roles is highly limited, though recent developments have led to a global index on young parliamentarians (see Stockember et al 2022 and accompanying website for the index). This work has identified that within parliaments, young adults (age of 35 years old or under at the time of a parliament’s inauguration) make up about 10% of MPs worldwide. Comparatively, young people under the age of 35 years old make up roughly one-third of the voting-age population and 50% of the global population. For MPs aged 40 years old or under, this group still makes up less than 20% of all MPs, despite making up some 40% of the world’s voting-age population (Stockemner et al 2023). It is argued by Stockemner et al (2023) that the number of young legislators is dependent on the willingness of young adults to run and parties’ and political actors’ willingness to nominate them, as well as the demand for young candidates in the electorate. There is some evidence that the most significant factor may be the willingness of parties to nominate young candidates to winnable seats (Krook and Nugent 2018; Stockemner et al 2022a, 2022b, 2023).
Potential strategies for reducing the age of political representatives have been suggested as proportional representation systems of quotas, term limits for representatives, and lowering legal age limits to stand for election (Stockemner et al 2023), where citizens must wait, on average, more than five years after becoming a voter before they can run for office themselves (Krook and Nugent 2018).
Membership of political parties
The mechanism and quality of the membership of young people within political parties and youth wings of political parties has been the subject of very little research. Bruter and Harrison’s (2009) research within six European countries has argued that young people join political parties for one of three reasons: moral, social, or professional. The latter of which has been interpreted as a strategy for improving prospects in life rather than the actual interest in politics (Vulkelic et al 2012). Cross et al’s (2008) work in Canada found “young people who choose to join political parties are a distinctive group. Many were exposed to partisan activity as children through their parents’ activism, and most enjoyed greater exposure to other forms of political information than their counterparts in the mass electorate…in this regard, the young party members stand in sharp contrast to their non-member counterparts who are more sceptical about the effectiveness of both parties within the political system, and of members within parties”. One of the primary functions of youth sections is to attract younger members into a political party (Barrett 2019) although there are few studies in this regard. Hooghe, Stolle and Stouthuysen (2004) report that over 40% of councillors in Belgium began their political careers in the youth section of a political party.
Alternative forms of youth involvement in politics
Building on the distinction of traditional participation vs alternative forms of participation, a number of efforts have been made to define and identify the various forms of alternative participation. Terminology has not been used consistently but traditional participation refers to voting, standing for office, membership of political parties, and membership of trade unions. The extent to which specific types of participation are “new”, “alternative”, and/or “innovative” depends on the context and history (Crowley et al 2016). Dualistic distinctions between the two are also argued to be limited (Kaim 2021) and lines between different forms can be blurred (Discher et al 2012).
Alternative forms of youth participation in political affairs include, but are not necessarily limited to:
- Engagement with protests and social movements, particularly single issues causes such as the environment, and often involving individualistic lifestyle choice protests such as boycotting goods (Alteri et al 2016, Fyfe 2009). See the chapter on civil society for more social movements.
- Digital participation or e-participation, a form of participation that takes place online. Digital participation involves the use of ICT, social media, and other digital tools for political participation, it can exist alongside or as part of other forms of participation, and also replicate other forms within digital spaces and platforms (Chryssochoou et al 2016; Pilkington et al 2015). The internet has been identified as a tool used by young people for politicisation and cyber resistance (Khoury-Machool 2007, Wang et al 2018) through peer-to-peer information sharing about political issues and organising online or offline political action (Boulianne et al 2020). The internet can also function as a tool for young people to express their demands to the government (Wang et al 2017). However, unrestricted internet access and perceived internet freedom are required for youth online collective action (Wang et al 2017). Various attempts have also been made by states to engage young people through digital mediums (e.g. Edelmann 2008).
- Deliberative participation initiatives, time limited engagement initiatives, based around a specific theme or issue, through which young members of the public come together to influence a key public action of policy based on the outcomes of their discussion and debate. This includes models such as participatory action research (Fox et al 2010), citizens juries, and participatory budgeting. Such initiatives are ideally state supported to ensure results of debates are acted upon. Deliberative participation is similar to public consultation with young people (surveys, focus groups, etc.), but deliberative participation includes a more in-depth level of debate and discussion as well as stronger commitments to act by decision-makers in response to the results (Boldt 2018; Crowley et al 2016).
- Co-production and co-management of public services, where small groups of young people share decision-making responsibilities for a public policy or programme with decision-makers (Crowley et al 2016). This is similar to youth advisory groups, where the young people give advice but do not hold formal decision-making responsibility (Faulkner 2009).
- Membership of independent youth councils, youth civil society organisations, and civil society organisations. Here it is debated if such structured forms are traditional (and therefore arguably in decline) or innovative. However, organisations can foster many other forms of participation, and the nature of the organisation is the defining feature (Grasso 2016). See the chapter on civil society for more on this topic.
Depending on how political participation is defined, two further forms are sometimes considered youth participation, though as they are absent from engagement with political institutions or policymakers, they may be better thought of as civic participation.
- Volunteering, civic activism and mutual aid, where young people take action to create social change but do not attempt to engage directly with policymaking institutions to secure the change, such as organising a beach cleanup activity (Shaw et al 2014).
- Alternative use of public space, such as reappropriating disused buildings or public space into arts venues and housing (Pitti 2018).
