Workshop on the Political Participation of Young People 21-22 June, 2013. Gençlerin Siyasi Katılımı 21 – 22 Haziran 2013

1. Presentation at Youth and Participation Project Workshop, Bilgi
University, Istanbul – 21st-22nd June 2013
Why is it important to promote young
people's participation in conventional politics,
and how can this be best achieved?
Dr Eldin Fahmy
School for Policy Studies, University of Bristol
E: eldin.fahmy@bris.ac.uk
This presentation presents work in progress and should not be disseminated or quoted without
written permission of the author

2. Session overview: Understanding youth political
participation in Europe
SUMMARY OF KEY ARGUMENTS
1.Thinking about ‘the political’
emphasises diversity of youth political
behaviours but this can obscure the
exclusion of youth from political
institutions and elites
3.Youth-specific explanations can
encourage a deficit-based model of
youth participation. We need to ask
rather why are political institutions
failing to engage with different publics?
2.Focus on youth-specific explanations
ignores the systemic changes in citizen
political participation across rich
countries
4.Understanding youth political
participation should be contextualised.
Political exclusion cannot be separated
from the wider structures of social
exclusion in contemporary societies

3. 3
Youth, ‘the political’, and participation
•
Many young people are disengaged
from formal political processes
•
This has prompted claims about youth
political ‘apathy’ and an emerging
‘crisis’ of youth participation. These
concerns sometimes reflect a very
narrow interpretation of ‘the political’
•
Like many other politically marginalised
groups, youth participation is
characterised by relatively informal
and/or unstructured modes of political
expression and action
•
This results in an underestimation of
the extent and nature of youth political
engagement
•
Commentary about youth political
‘apathy’ often reflect concerns for
the continued legitimacy of existing
political institutions much more than
an interest in promoting youth
empowerment
•
BUT the continued exclusion of youth
from formal mechanisms is a
problem for all those committed to
the pursuit of political equality
because these institutions remain a
key mechanism for holding socially
powerful groups to account

4. 4
The social context of youth participation
•
•
•
Declining levels of citizen engagement
in formal politics is not a youth-specific
issue: youth-specific accounts do not
provide a full explanation
Changes over time in youth political
engagement are part of a wider
disenchantment of Western publics
with representative political
institutions: it is a systemic problem
Existing accounts often focus on:
– Lifecycle factors: networks,
competency and knowledge,
interest and ‘life tasks’
– Generational factors: postmaterialism, post-modernisation,
individualism
BUT :
•
Similar trends are largely evident
amongst older citizens
•
The ‘new politics’ reflects traditional
concerns with distributional issues
(e.g. anti-globalisation, anticapitalism)
•
The history of counter-hegemonic
social movements suggests that the
politics of recognition have always
marched hand-in-hand with concerns
for redistribution of wealth and
power

5. 5
Challenging deficit models of youth political participation
•
•
•
The dynamics of youth political
participation need to take account of
wider changes in the political economy
of Western societies and their
democratic institutions
Existing popular explanations
emphasise factors relating to youth
themselves, rather than to changes in
the institutional context of
participation, incl. the declining efficacy
of institutions in meeting citizens
demands
Challenging this narrative involves
listening more closely to the views of
young people themselves
•
Young people feel they lack the
political skills and knowledge needed
to operate as effective political actors
•
Young people feel that politicians are
untrustworthy and out of touch, and
that political institutions are
ineffective in achieving positive
changes
•
Young people feel that there is little
to choose between the main political
parties in the issue agendas they
pursue – agendas which are in many
cases widely perceived as being
hostile to youth interests

6. 6
Addressing the institutional bases of non-participation
•
A lack of ‘political literacy’ reflects the
decline of agencies of political
socialisation for youth as political actors
and not only ‘consumers’ of politics
•
More effective integration is needed
between informal forms of political
engagement with the formal political
institutions of state power
•
Where collective action continues to be
provide a political education this
increasingly takes place outside the
sphere of electoral politics
•
•
State-sanctioned approaches to
political literacy address an apparent
crisis of legitimation rather than
empowering youth
In many Western societies, the
institutional structure of formal
participation have remained largely
unaltered for more than half a
century!!
•
New ways of engaging publics (e.g.
citizens’ juries, people’s panels, and
deliberative polling methods) have
been tokenistic since they have not
been integrated with existing
representative mechanisms
•
Widespread citizen dissatisfaction with
politics requires reform of existing
institutions and processes to more
effectively represent the interests of
Europe’s citizens

7. 7
Youth, political exclusion and social marginalisation
Explanations need to take account of
the political economy of political
engagement, e.g.:
•
•
•
•
‘Hollowing out’ of political parties
with regard to their traditional
support base and grass roots
Increased ideological convergence
of political parties around a neoliberal issue agenda
Declining effectiveness of nation
states in holding corporate power
to account
Progressive widening of disparities
in income and wealth – and in
youth transitions and outcomes
What are the implications for democratic
practice?
•
Re-engaging youth requires a
commitment from policy makers to a
more positive policy environment on
youth issues
•
Young people are not unique in their
political exclusion: institutionalisation
of democratic norms has resulted in the
reassertion of control by political elites
•
Radical democracy involves
reconnecting informal, grassroots
activity with the formal mechanisms of
representation and government
through which state power is exercised