A generation apart? Youth and political participation in Britain (original) (raw)
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Politically alienated or apathetic: young people's attitudes towards party politics in Britain
2004
Following the outcome of the 2001 General Election, when the numbers of abstainers outweighed the numbers of Labour voters, much attention has been focussed upon the state of British democracy, and how to enthuse the electorate - and in particular young people, of whom 61 percent chose to stay away from the polling stations. While the government is exploring ways to make the whole process of voting easier (with ideas such as voting over the telephone and the Internet) it may be failing to tackle the real problem. The main challenge is that many young people appear to find the business of politics uninviting and irrelevant to their everyday lives. This paper examines data derived from a nationwide survey of 705 attainers – young people who are eligible to vote for the first-time and who have only limited experience of formal politics. The findings from the study reveal that these young people are not as apathetic when it comes to “Politics” as conventional wisdom would have us believ...
Uninterested Youth? Young People's Attitudes towards Party Politics in Britain
2005
""Following the outcome of the 2001 and 2005 general elections, when the numbers of abstainers outweighed the numbers of Labour voters on both occasions, much attention has focused upon the state of British democracy and how to enthuse the electorate, especially young people. Whilst the government is exploring ways to make the whole process of voting easier, it may be failing to tackle the real problem – that youth appear to find the business of politics uninviting and irrelevant. This paper examines data derived from a nationwide survey of more than 700 young people in order to shed light on what lies at the heart of young people's apparent disengagement from formal politics in Britain – political apathy or a sense of political alienation. The findings reveal that they support the democratic process, but are sceptical of the way the British political system is organised and led and are turned off by politicians and the political parties. However, there is no uniform youth orientation to politics, and the data indicate that views differ according to social class, educational history and also gender. However both ethnicity and region of the country in which young people live seem to have little influence in structuring political attitudes and behaviour. ""
Over the course of the last decade, policy makers in Britain have become increasingly concerned about the apparent and persisting withdrawal by young people from the formal political process. In this article, we consider the results from a representative online national survey of 1,025 British 18 year olds conducted in 2011, including both those who voted at the 2010 General Election and those who did not. The findings reveal that young people do profess a commitment to the political process, although they consider that there are relatively few opportunities available for them to intervene effectively in formal political life. Our study also indicates that there is no uniform youth orientation to politics, and the data reveal that this generation’s engagement with formal politics is complex and nuanced. Social class and educational history both appear to have a crucial bearing on political engagement, while views also differ according to ethnicity and - to a lesser extent - gender. We also consider the findings from fourteen online focus groups with 86 young people who opted not to vote at the 2010 General Election. These findings enable us to consider what influenced these young people’s patterns of (dis)engagement with politics.
This paper will present the results from a project that follows on from a national survey completed by the lead researcher in 2002. That earlier study identified a significant degree of disengagement from politics amongst British 18 year olds, of whom only 39% voted at the 2001 General Election. Crucially, it found that this disengagement rested upon a high degree of youth distrust and scepticism about "formal politics", and particularly of professional politicians. Since the 2002 study, policy makers have become increasingly concerned about the continuing lack of engagement that young people have with the formal political process in Britain. The current study began in 2011, and focuses upon a new generation of young people a decade on from the previous research. By analysing early findings from the current study's survey data, we shall examine the views that youth have about formal politics now, and how these may differ in comparison to those expressed by the 2002 cohort. The study is innovative in its use of online methods, and is based on a national online questionnaire survey amongst 1,025 18-year olds, including voters and non-voters.
Journal of Youth Studies, Vol. 17, pp.1–22., 2013
Over the course of the last decade, policy makers in Britain have become increasingly concerned about the apparent and persisting withdrawal by young people from the formal political process. In this article, we consider the results from a representative online national survey of 1,025 British 18 year olds conducted in 2011, including both those who voted at the 2010 General Election and those who did not. The findings reveal that young people do profess a commitment to the political process, although they consider that there are relatively few opportunities available for them to intervene effectively in formal political life. Our study also indicates that there is no uniform youth orientation to politics, and the data reveal that this generation’s engagement with formal politics is complex and nuanced. Social class and educational history both appear to have a crucial bearing on political engagement, while views also differ according to ethnicity and - to a lesser extent - gender. We also consider the findings from fourteen online focus groups with 86 young people who opted not to vote at the 2010 General Election. These findings enable us to consider what influenced these young people’s patterns of (dis)engagement with politics.
Young People, Political Participation and Trust in Britain
2012
Young people in Britain are often characterised as disconnected from the formal political process and from democratic institutions. Certainly their rate of abstention in general election contests over the last decade has led to concerns amongst the political classes that they have a disaffection from politics that is deeply entrenched and more so than was the case with previous youth generations, and may in the future become habit-forming. In this article, we consider the results from an online national survey of 1025 British 18 year olds conducted in 2011, and compare these with the results from a similar study conducted by one of the authors in 2002. In doing so, our aim is to assess the extent to which young people's levels of political engagement have changed over the course of the intervening years, and if so, how they have changed. The results from this comparison indicate that, contrary to popular wisdom, today's generation of young people are interested in political affairs, and they are keen to play a more active role in the political process. However, their recent experience of their first general election in 2010 has left them feeling frustrated. Indeed, our study has revealed a considerable aversion to formal, professional politics which is as deep today as it was for the predecessor 2002 youth cohort.
Young people and politics in Britain
2011
Politicians and the media claim that young people are apathetic towards politics, and the turnout among young voters appears to confirm this. But are young people really not interested in politics — or are they simply disenchanted with aspects of the political process?
Tuning out or Tuned Out? A Critical Discourse Analysis of Youth Political Participation in Britain
2015
Young people do not vote in the same numbers as older generations, which causes considerable concern within British democratic life. They are seen as detached and disengaged, however, the focus on voting and other traditional forms of political participation is arguably a narrow way of assessing this generation’s political engagement. This paper discusses a critical discourse analysis of recent media texts on youth political participation and argues that media coverage of young people’s political participation furthers this misconception that the youth of Britain today are not interested in politics and political issues. We argue that notions of youth political participation must extend beyond traditional political engagement, namely voting.