What matters? exploring youth political participation in Western democracies

Download or read book What matters? exploring youth political participation in Western democracies written by Hilary Elizabeth Farson and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 62 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Researchers examining youth political participation largely fall within one of two camps: the first argues that youth participation is in decline, the second that this youngest demographic of voters still participates, but in new and unconventional ways. I aim to advance the academic debate on youth political participation by identifying and categorizing prevalent forms of youth political participation, both online and offline. By doing so, I also aim to contribute insights about the potential to influence youth political participation by identifying and examining relationships between the prevalence of participatory acts and the presence of particular features of participation. I address the extent to which, and how, youths are politically engaged both online and offline in western democracies. In order to do so I investigate dimensions of participation - including whether acts are interactive and the amount of resources they require - to discover whether they relate to the likelihood that youths will participate in political activity. I then examine existing survey reports to determine the prevalence of various forms of youth political participation in three Western democracies: the United States (U.S.), Australia and Canada. In doing so, I illustrate that youths are politically active but have moved away from traditional political activities, and instead seek out alternative avenues for participation, especially online.