Tag: Young People
Allow young people to set the political agenda by giving youth parliaments the power to call referendums
In the latest post from our series on youth participation, Gerry Stoker challenges the idea that the innocence and political inexperience of young people is a problem we need to solve. Instead, he argues that young people have a less fixed view of politics and are more willing to believe it could be better. He […]
First-time compulsory voting is designed to get politicians to engage with young voters’ concerns
This week on Democratic Audit, Matt Henn and Nick Foard argued that introducing compulsory voting would risk increasing the resentment of young people toward politics. In this post we feature a response from Glenn Gottfried and Sarah Birch, who have proposed compulsory voting for first-time voters. They argue this could be an effective tool to […]
Compulsory voting may reinforce the resentment young people feel toward the political class
With young people much less likely to vote than older generations, it has been proposed the UK follow other countries such as Belgium and Australia by introducing compulsory voting, with IPPR suggesting only first-time voters should be forced to participate. Matt Henn and Nick Foard consider the merits of this proposal using data from a […]
16 and 17 year olds are not fully autonomous, and therefore should not be allowed to vote
The Scottish Government has allowed 16 and 17 year olds to participate in the forthcoming referendum on independence. Here, Dan Degerman argues that this age group, though in some ways in possession of the necessary faculties and experiences required to participate in the electoral process, lack the right to vote due to their restricted options in other spheres of […]
Votes at 16 should be part of the systemic reform needed to counter youth abstention from democratic institutions
Andrew Mycock and Jonathan Tonge argued on Democratic Audit recently that lowering the voting age to 16 in the UK should not be considered while much wider and political reform is required to engage young people. In this post Benjamin Bowman responds, suggesting that enfranchising should be part of this systemic reform, and would place the right […]
The 2011 riots: a story of community, locality, subculture and music, demystifying the mainstream media and politicians’ descriptions of feral youth, nihilistic gang culture, thug life and ignorance
The rioting of 2011 started in London and spread to a number of other cities in the UK. Experts gathered in Bristol recently to explore the links between popular music, civic unrest and communities, considering both the 2011 and unrest in the 1980s. In this post Peter Webb and Lucy Robinson, on behalf of the Subcultures Network, summarise […]
Young people are less engaged in both traditional and non-traditional forms of politics than older generations
Declining rates of youth engagement in politics continues to perplex policymakers and seems to defy easy solutions. While some point to young people’s apparent propensity to engage with issues in different and more modern ways, such as single issue campaigns and petitions, each generation since the early 20th Century has proven to be less engaged […]
We don’t need to lower the voting age to ensure MPs listen to the views of young people
Last week MPs debated the the case for lowering the UK’s voting age to 16, following Scotland’s decision to allow 16 and 17-year-olds to vote in the independence referendum. Mark Harper MP argued strongly against votes at 16 in the debate, in response to the proposal from Sarah Champion, which was featured on Democratic Audit yesterday. This post is an edited version […]
Votes at 16 will not solve the problem of youth disengagement overnight, but it will help us to address the issue
Last week MPs debated the the case for lowering the UK’s voting age to 16, following Scotland’s decision to allow 16 and 17-year-olds to vote in the independence referendum. Sarah Champion MP initiated the debate, arguing in favour of the reform on the basis that young people demonstrate considerable enthusiasm for participating in politics. This post is an edited […]
The democratic potential of youth assemblies and political forums in the UK: a case study of the Scottish Youth Parliament
Young people are represented in a number of youth parliaments and assemblies in the UK, with these bodies also providing a valuable source of political experience. Stratos Patrikios and Mark Shephard have studied the Scottish Youth Parliament in detail to assess how representative the institution is. They found that it does broadly reflect the Scottish population, although […]
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