Thoughts on youth disengagement in UK politics and why it will have a long-lasting impact on our democracy.
bySam Murphy
12 May 2024
Photo: Youth climate protests, Callum Shaw, Unsplash
I am 20 years old and I have never voted in a general election. But come the end of this year (providing nothing out of the ordinary happens) I will have. However, I won’t necessarily be in the majority for people of my age and that is the concerning reality of current youth participation in UK politics.
In 2019, only 54% of young people aged 18 to 24 voted in the general election, and it is likely that it will be even fewer this year. This figure compares with 67.3% across the board (Source: HMG). This may not come as a surprise as youth participation in elections has traditionally been low in comparison with other age groups.
In the UK, political parties have long been held in contempt, especially among younger people. But what is new is the increased belief, not that the parties or politicians are ineffective (although that certainly remains true), but that politics and the system by which we conduct our politics in this country are broken.
It’s not that we don’t care…
Lower turnout in elections among young people is not down to a lack of interest, rather the result of a “dramatic loss of faith in UK democracy” and the traditional ways to effect change. During Dorian Lynskey’s discussion with Robert Saunders, expert in Modern British History at Queen Mary University of London, about youth politics. Saunders explains that “if you’re a teenager that wants to stop the planet burning you haven’t really got that possibility [of influencing politics]” compared to, for example, powerful oil executives and political lobbyists.
A report on the YouGov poll of 3,442 adults commissioned by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) found that only 6% of voters believed that the public’s views were the main influences behind government decisions.
Consequently, there is a prevailing sentiment among young people that the traditional ways to effect change (i.e., elections both local and general) are flawed. Instead, they choose to participate in politics “in other ways”; whether it be through protest, social media movements, petitions, or volunteer work with NGOs. Public-relations research firm, Edelman, found that 70% of Gen Z-ers are involved in some kind of formal social or political cause. And they participate in these modes of activism far more often than other age categories, as seen here:
Source: House of Commons Library
… it’s that they don’t care. UK politics has turned its back on young people.
In a survey conducted by the IPPR, those surveyed believed that major political donors (25%), corporations and business groups (16%), newspapers and media (13%), as well as lobbyists and pressure groups (12%) all had greater influence over the political processes in this country than ‘the voter’. Under 20% of 18-24 year olds responded ‘well’ to the question “how well, if at all, do you think democracy in Britain as a whole addresses the interests of people like you?”. This compares with over 45% for the over-65s. Similarly figures for the most deprived neighbourhoods were 25% compared with 41% for the least deprived.
This is quite starkly reflected in government policy, and the state of the nation. With house prices continuing to rise, and new home ownership dropping at a rate exceeding that of France, Germany or the US, there is little hope for young people to get onto the property ladder or achieve the ‘upward mobility’ that they desire and desperately call for.
According to a Financial Times analysis “Britain’s young adults have less faith in upward mobility than young people in any other developed Western nation, and much less than their elders”. In the UK 39% of 18-29 year olds agreed with the statement ‘in the long run hard work usually brings a better life”, in contrast, for example, to 55% in Australia and Sweden and 60% in the USA.
One has to question whether it is proper for a functioning democracy to provide so little potential for citizens to invoke change.
When there is such a considerable percentage of the population that are not having their voices represented in parliament – when they are not considered in the creation of legislation and their interests fall by the wayside in favour of the wealthy and powerful, when their vote does not translate to change – is this not disenfranchisement in all but name?
It is no wonder that young people feel so disaffected.
And how does the Prime Minister address the ever-growing level of disillusionment among young people? … By abandoning them.
Within just two weeks after the publication of a YouGov poll that revealed a stark lack of faith in the government (p. 1) and in Rishi Sunak himself (p. 2) among those under 50, he announced that he would not address their concerns and instead would be focusing on policy “targeting the ‘Saga generation’” of over-50s? Despite facing, a “generational wipeout”, Sunak has clearly expressed that he is unperturbed. Such public disregard for the interests of younger voters has sadly become commonplace since 2016.
Accidentally demonstrating a flash of insight, Liz Truss, in an otherwise borderline neo-fascist speech at the launch of ‘Popular Conservatives’, correctly remarked that, if asked about democracy in the country, “there’s not a very polite response” from young people.
There is an irony to a disgraced, recently-removed Prime Minister criticising her party’s disregard for young people during a speech where she also criticised the likes of environmentalists and Greta Thunberg, LGBT supporters, those who champion “groups of ethnic minorities”, and those pro-immigration – in other words, the most popular movements in this country among young people. While, on one level laughable, this complete lack of self-awareness quickly becomes quite sobering given just how accurately it sums up this long out-of-touch government.
Apathy amongst young people is fixable… but distrust less so. And it threatens the very existence of our democracy.
On the Oh God What Now? podcast, guest, Robert Saunders, calls the current situation with youth politics a “self-fulfilling prophecy”. When politics repeatedly neglects young people, turnout drops as they lose faith in their ability to impact governmental decisions. We now see political parties failing to cater to young people or to consider them when designing policy. They are not, after all, the voters that put them in power. As a result, more become disillusioned and more begin to turn their backs on traditional politics. It is a repeating cycle.
Those that are unconcerned by this would argue that this generation, as they become older, will begin to participate more, as has happened before. But I would argue that this generation of young people share a distinctly more deliberate and entrenched culture of distrusting electoral politics, than their predecessors.
If this is allowed to continue and governments keep ignoring the concerns and needs of our young people, voting will not become habitual behaviour for them, as it should, and this has serious implications for the effectiveness of our democratic institutions.
Source: easy-peasyai-CC-BY-ND-40-DEED-002
What now?
A first step would be lowering the voting age. Studies show that introducing voting to 16- and 17-year-olds cemented participation in electoral politics as a “habit”, thus encouraging greater turnout in the longer term. They become more politically active in later life than those who are unable to vote until 18. This has been seen in Austria since 2007, for example. Lowering the voting age resulted in “higher turnout and trust in the political system”. If the voting age were to be lowered in the UK, and perhaps if lobbying laws were to change, it would be a public show by the political establishment that the voters and their interests are truly valued and will influence government policy. These changes, however, are unlikely to come anytime soon. And their real-world application deserves a more in-depth discussion, which is for another article. In the meantime, to re-establish trust, political parties must make more of an effort to speak to young voters in election campaigns and make them believe they are being represented in this democracy.
Politicians must see involving the youth in politics as a long-term investment towards the integrity and longevity of our democracy. It will restore faith, foster habitual voting, and increase trust among the general population over time. Unfortunately, our political system does not reward this behaviour in the short term and we really need to see change soon.
There need to be serious, sustained efforts implemented to involve young people in politics. As historian Simon Schama stated on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, “give young people… their future back”.
Sam Murphy
Sam is a student from Manchester who currently goes to the University of Bristol where he studies BA Politics and Spanish. He has always been interested in politics, growing up in a household where it was talked about a lot, especially since Brexit. He says: "As a young person I am deeply frustrated at the current state of UK politics and believe that people of my generation need to make their voice heard if change is to come".
A first step would be lowering the voting age. Studies show that introducing voting to 16- and 17-year-olds cemented participation in electoral politics as a “habit”, thus encouraging greater turnout in the longer term. They become more politically active in later life than those who are unable to vote until 18. This has been seen in Austria since 2007, for example. Lowering the voting age resulted in “higher turnout and trust in the political system”. If the voting age were to be lowered in the UK, and perhaps if lobbying laws were to change, it would be a public show by the political establishment that the voters and their interests are truly valued and will influence government policy. These changes, however, are unlikely to come anytime soon. And their real-world application deserves a more in-depth discussion, which is for another article. In the meantime, to re-establish trust, political parties must make more of an effort to speak to young voters in election campaigns and make them believe they are being represented in this democracy.
Politicians must see involving the youth in politics as a long-term investment towards the integrity and longevity of our democracy. It will restore faith, foster habitual voting, and increase trust among the general population over time. Unfortunately, our political system does not reward this behaviour in the short term and we really need to see change soon.
There need to be serious, sustained efforts implemented to involve young people in politics. As historian Simon Schama stated on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, “give young people… their future back”.
Sam Murphy
Sam is a student from Manchester who currently goes to the University of Bristol where he studies BA Politics and Spanish. He has always been interested in politics, growing up in a household where it was talked about a lot, especially since Brexit. He says: "As a young person I am deeply frustrated at the current state of UK politics and believe that people of my generation need to make their voice heard if change is to come".
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