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Journal of Youth Studies
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Introduction: youth and politics
Claire Wallace
Published online: 03 Jun 2010.
To cite this article: Claire Wallace (2003) Introduction: youth and politics, Journal of Youth Studies,
6:3, 243-245, DOI: 10.1080/1367626032000138237
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Journal of Youth Studies, Vol. 6, No. 3, 2003
Introduction: Youth and Politics
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CLAIRE WALLACE
It is often claimed that young people are estranged from conventional politics
and becoming increasingly politically apathetic. No longer are they viewed as
potential activists taking to the streets, as in 1968, or as voting and joining
parties, like previous generations did. Instead, it is often claimed that they are
subject to increasing individualization (Furlong & Cartmel, 1997), are developing
‘post-materialist’ or even ‘postmodern’ values (Inglehart, 1990, 1997), and are
concerned with a new set of values and issues rather than conventional politics.
But are these tendencies universal in developed countries? Are there any
alternative tendencies? Do young people represent an homogeneous group or
are there different tendencies within youth? Through empirical research we can
better understand whether the aforementioned claims are true and how we can
best understand young people in relation to politics.
This collection of papers represents different views of youth and politics from
various countries around the world: Canada, Australia, the UK and Germany.
Hence, they cannot claim to represent worldwide tendencies, but only those
within a few developed Western countries. However, we do have some contrasting perspectives from French-speaking as well as English-speaking Canada, as
well as from East and West Germany, which suggest that some of these
tendencies may not be universal among youth, but will depend upon regional
experiences. However, they do give us a wider perspective than single country
studies.
What is clear from all of these papers is that young people on the whole are
not strongly represented in conventional political parties and political debates.
On the one hand, such conventional parties and debates seldom concern
themselves with young people’s interests (and where they do, they have mainly
been concerned with cutting the benefits or withdrawing youth facilities and
privileges or privatizing them); and on the other hand, young people themselves
distance themselves from these fora.
Why is this?
One answer, presented by Margaret Adsett, specifically with regard to voting, is
that conventional politicians no longer try to win the votes of young people
because there are simply less young people relative to other population groups,
due to the general demographic changes in most Western countries. In Germany, Wolfgang Gaiser and colleagues document a steady disillusionment with
democracy as the ideal of democracy and its day-to-day reality seem to drift
apart, especially in Eastern Germany. Others have suggested that it is the decline
in the employment of young people that may account for their withdrawal from
ISSN 1367–6261 print/1469-9680 online/03/030243-03  2003 Taylor & Francis Ltd
DOI: 10.1080/1367626032000138237
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244 C. Wallace
politics: more and more are unemployed and others remain in education and
training for lengthier periods (Hammer & Carle, 2002). Certainly, there seems to
be some important contrasts between Eastern and Western Europe, with declining levels of political participation in the East (Spannring et al., 2000).
However, other sources suggest that we may be looking at the wrong things
when prematurely announcing the disengagement of young people from politics. Studies in Eastern Europe have shown that where there are important
issues, young people can be mobilized. Such was the case with the overthrow of
the former communist regimes, where young people played an important part
in resistance movements (Kovacheva, 1995; Wallace & Kovatcheva, 1998), as well
as the mobilization of young people’s votes for the overthrow of the Meciar
government in Slovakia, where young people were decisive in bringing a
movement towards Westernization and democracy (Machacek, 2000). Madeleine
Gauthier suggests in this special issue that, in regions such as Quebec, young
Canadians are anything but withdrawn—in this region there is a regeneration in
young people’s political engagement because of the strong political mobilization
there generally. John Bynner, David Romney and Nick Emler also demonstrate
that young people are found more in certain political dimensions: moral conservatism (concerning sexual ethics and the work ethic) and environmentalism.
Ariadne Vromen also suggests that young people are more likely to be involved
in issue politics, boycotts and other forms of less conventional political expression.
Young women are also more interested in certain forms of political expression.
Ariadne Vromen suggests that, in Australia, they are more associated with
political tendencies such as activism and communitarianism, and John Bynner
and colleagues as well as others have identified environmentalism and moral
conservatism (sexual conservatism and the work ethic) as something more likely
to be associated with young women.
Furthermore, the better educated are more likely to be politically involved and
politically interested in all the developed countries, and a variety of explanations
are put forward to account for this.
Although using different data sources and different indictors, several authors
have tried to draw out latent tendencies using factor analysis or typologies. In
the case of Germany, Wolfgang Gaiser and colleagues identify satisfied
democrats, detached democrats and critical democrats as groups focusing on
attitudes to democracy. John Bynner and colleagues instead identify tendencies,
including engagement, tolerance and conservatism, all of which are similar to
the values of adults and additional dimensions of moral conservatism and
environmentalism that are specific to youth. Ariadne Vromen, using a smaller
sample in Australia, identifies four forms of political engagement: activist,
communitarian, party politics, and individualistic. Due to the different methodologies, these tendencies cannot be directly compared, but they do suggest that
at least some young people are interested in conventional politics, and that we
need to take account of a range of values and actions rather than only voting
(voting is not an issue in Australia anyway, because voting is compulsory there).
Several of these presented papers were originally presented at the World
Congress of the International Sociological Association, Research Committee 34
on the Sociology of Youth in Brisbane, July 2002. The large number attending the
session and the lively discussion that took place there suggest that politics and
youth is a topic that at least engages sociologists.
Introduction
245
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