Stimulating young people to engage themselves politically, in particular to vote, is a major concern both in empirical research on political participation as well as in various projects and programs aimed at stimulating voting amongst young people. However, the understanding of what may be the motivations behind the act of voting is often quite vague.
There are several approaches in the literature that might shed light on individuals` motivations for political participation in general and voting in particular. Political science research suggests contextual, institutional – and individual explanations; the last covering both resources and attitudes. Other theoretical traditions such as educational theory, media research and marketing theory suggest different ideas of what may motivate voting. In this paper we discuss different ideas of what makes young people vote, and we propose an extended framework for empirical analysis.
