Bringing Youth Back In: Youth Political Participation and Representation in the 21st Century

There is a disconnect between young people and politics. Across representative democracies, young people turn out to vote at lower rates, donate less to political campaigns, have less interest or knowledge of traditional party politics, and are less likely to run for or hold public office than older people. The relative absence of young people in both the electoral process and political institutions is worrying not only because of normative concerns about civic engagement, but also because young people have different preferences on a wide range of policies that disproportionately affect them, from those concerning education, unemployment, newer technologies, and childcare to longer-term issues such as climate change. While young people are very active in political arenas such as public protests, democracy movements, and online activities, their absence from more traditional politics raises the concern that mostly older politicians will have little incentive to pay attention to their interests, biasing public policy toward the preferences of older citizens. This section will bring together the strands of research on youth political participation including studies of youth activism and mobilization, youth political behaviour, as well as the formal representation of young people. With the aim of ‘bringing young people back in’ to conversations about representative democracy and the role of young people in politics, this section will consist of five panels: Youth in Civil Society and Avenues of Activism, Youth Political Participation: Turnout and Engagement, Young People in Public Office, Civic Education and Citizenship, and Youth Political Behaviour and Attitudes toward Democracy. The first panel, Youth in Civil Society and Avenues of Activism, aims to present research concerning the ways young people are re-imagining and re-shaping the future of democracy through protests and social movements. Recent history has shown that young people are anything but apolitical. From the Arab Spring to the more recent Black Lives Matter protests, young people have joined, in mass, in social movements, seeking new futures. While some research shows that young people are, on the whole, more progressive, they have mobilized across several issue areas as well as upon a wide range of perspectives. This panel presents research aimed at understanding youth engagement in movements addressing issues such as, but not limited to: • Climate Change • Racial/Ethnic/Gender Equality • Immigration • Protest behaviour The second panel, Youth Political Participation: Turnout and Engagement, looks more closely at traditional forms of political participation and ways of increasing this type of participation. Over the last two decades, political scientists have written extensively about the decline of democracy as a result of the withdrawal of democracy’s youngest participants. Many of these scholars have noted, especially in Europe, both a decline in youth voter turnout, as well as in youth’s propensity to join a political party. As a result, scholars have both sought explanations for this behavior as well as ways to remedy the situation. This panel presents work by scholars interested in youth’s voting behavior and engagement with formal politics. Topics to in this panel include, but are not limited to: • Youth voter turnout • Youth engagement with formal political institutions • Intersectional barriers to youth political participation The third panel, Young People in Public Office, focuses on a more recent line of inquiry, youth political representation. Over the last 5-10 years, young people’s absence from decision-making tables has become more apparent. This is both a result of changing demographics and a growing age gap between the represented and their representatives, continued silence of representatives to heed the calls of young activists, as well as increased recognition of the power of young people by international organizations. The underrepresentation of young people in the places where decisions are being made leads to a democratic deficit and can exacerbate attitudes of distrust and cynicism—the things that ultimately lead to youth alienation and disengagement from formal political participation. Therefore, this panel presents scholarship investigating topics such as, but not limited to: • Youth Candidate Selection • Voter Perceptions and Attitudes towards young / minority candidates • Descriptive, Substantive, and Symbolic Representation • Intersectionality The fourth panel, Civic Education and Citizenship, highlights research aimed at remedying the decline in youth’s participation in formal politics. Scholarship concerning youth’s decline in participation has often looked to civic education as an important socialization tool. The papers included in this panel seek to investigate the role of civic education even further by drawing attention to issues such as, but not limited to: • Intersectionality in civic education (gender, race/ethnicity, class) • Migrant belonging and citizenship attitudes • Educational autonomy The fifth panel, Youth Political Behaviour and Attitudes toward Democracy, focuses on attitudes that young people have toward democratic institutions as well as youth public opinion. Papers included in this panel address issues such as, but not limited to: • Generational attitudes toward democracy • Gendered public opinion and attitudes • Democratic interests There are important linkages between the sub-themes of these panels, for instance as perceptions of being excluded from formal politics might feed into aspects of both conventional and non-conventional forms of political action among youth. In general, then, this section brings together scholars interested in youth political participation, both ‘traditional’ and ‘non-traditional,’ and representation to better understand the future of representative democracy. Apart from the potential consequences for the interests of younger people, understanding youth politics is especially important given that many political behaviours such as voting are habit forming. Individuals who participate in the political process at a younger age are more likely to continue participating throughout their lives. Thus, encouraging young people to be more actively engaged in the civic process—whether through protesting, voting, or running for office themselves—is critical for the future health of democracies.