The rise of gerontocracy? Addressing the intergenerational democratic deficit (original) (raw)
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This article is a response to Berry's arguments on the impact of population ageing as potentially marginalising younger people in the democratic process. Berry constructs a pessimistic account where a powerful grey vote will enact an age-based 'majority rule' and posits this as a 'democratic deficit' that contravenes the 'unwritten' rules of democracy. This response argues that automatic assumptions of age-related majority rule are frequently based upon a highly flawed grey power model and the need to incorporate intergenerational and intra-family solidarity, as well as life-cycle factors into these debates. This response agrees that older voters are likely to become much more important in electoral politics, but not because they will vote as a bloc or aggressively pursue material self-interest, but because ageing policy challenges may increasingly attain the status of valence issues in future elections.
A generation apart? Youth and political participation in Britain
British Journal of Politics & International Relations, 2002
Conventional wisdom holds that young people in Britain are alienated from politics, with some claiming that this reflects a wider crisis of legitimacy that should be met by initiatives to increase citizenship. This article addresses these areas, presenting both panel survey and focus group data from first-time voters. It concludes that, contrary to the findings from many predominantly quantitative studies of political participation, young people are interested in political matters, and do support the democratic process. However, they feel a sense of anti-climax having voted for the first time, and are critical of those who have been elected to positions of political power. If they are a generation apart, this is less to do with apathy, and more to do with their engaged scepticism about ‘formal’ politics in Britain.
Mobilising the Youth Vote: The Future of British Democracy
newcastle.edu.au
Despite the slight increase recorded at the 2005 poll, turnout at British national elections continues to be low. The slight rise in turnout was driven by the increased voting participation of baby boomers whereas the youth vote dipped well below the fifty percent mark. This is worrying, not only because youth is a surrogate for other forms of social and economic exclusion, but also because it augurs ill for the future of British democracy. Although the low voting turnout of the young was once dismissed as merely a life-cycle phenomenon, this no longer appears to be true with the early low participation habits of young people apparently becoming entrenched over time. In Britain a number of reforms have been instituted to stem the tide of electoral demobilisation but none have been particularly successful. Since such piecemeal reforms seem unable to solve the problem, we recommend compulsory voting as the most reliable means of raising voting participation. And, as we show, compulsory voting has a good chance of being adopted in Britain due to its growing popularity with both policy makers and the public.
This paper seeks to examine attempts by the main political parties in the UK general election of 2005 to segment the electorate according to their age and position within the life cycle. Particular attention is given to product adjustments and the party campaigns for the votes of older people, the "grey vote", as the political market shifts profoundly driven both by demographics, the ageing of the population, as well as by electoral behaviour, the declining participation of younger voters. Consideration is also given to segmentation of voters in the first age, the "youth vote", and the second age, "Generation Jones" and "school gate mums". The paper moves on to discuss age and segmentation in the context of elections remaining essentially mass communications campaigns, and the responses within civil society to the apparent power allocated to sub-groups identified as priority targets.
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. ""
Young Citizens – A Sail and not an Anchor for the Ship of Australian Democracy
Are younger generations apathetic about politics, combining complacency with self-absorption, and so threatening the future of Australian democracy? One of the strongest findings from decades of research is that what citizens do politically in their early years tends to set the trend for their engagement with politics in the future. So it matters that we understand how younger generations are engaging with democratic politics and how their orientation stands in relation to older generations. Our findings, from carefully conducted survey work and analysis, challenge negative stereotypes of the younger generations and give grounds for optimism because they show that within the younger generations are citizens with the enthusiasm and capacity to change the direction of Australian politics. Far from being an anchor dragging the ship of Australian democracy to a standstill and becalming processes of democratic renewal, the younger generations, if given the opportunity, can help enrich the quality of Australian democracy.
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?
From Denizen to Citizen: Contesting Representations of Young People and the Voting Age
Journal of Applied Youth Studies, 2020
The point of departure for this article is the failed attempt in Australia in 2018 to lower the voting age below 18. The focus is on citizenship and how particular representations of children and young people are used to justify not giving young people the vote. I draw on the theory of representations developed by Bourdieu (1992), Moscovici (1980) as well as Taylor's theory of misrecognition (1994) to highlight how particular representations are used in some arguments made by those opposing the enfranchisement of people under 18 years of age. Those representations emphasise alleged deficiencies in young people's political literacy, capacity for good judgement and experience due largely to a developmental stage in the life cycle they are said to occupy. In assessing these arguments, evidence is provided that demonstrates the various ways young people are being political and well able to engage in complex political processes and exercise good judgment. This raises various issues about how the political capabilities of young people are understood in a context characterized as a crisis of democracy.