Youth today have grown up in a world where they are marginalized by the rest of the public.They are told that their values and views are invalid, and have the impression that they have no influence over the government. This is partially due to the culture, which has surrounded them since birth. Through the experiences of their parents, many youth see the futility of government involvement before they are even of the age to vote. By seeing the government’s failure to meet the needs of their parents, this perception of inconsequentiality is intensified.
By seeing the outcome of involvement in government, through access to the public sector or involvement in local governments, as unlikely to return the outcome that they want, youth become discouraged and assume that involvement in democracy will be just as useless. This sense of ineffectual involvement will only encourage the idea that the government isn’t there to serve them; instead, it will enforce a feeling that the government is separate from them. This divide, between youth and the government, enforces a class partition between youth voters and the so-called “political class”.
Politicians further this divide through the language they choose to use. By using a language that youth, and a large part of the public, aren’t fluent in, politicians distance themselves from the potential young voters. Not only does this language barrier make it hard for young people to understand what material the politicians are discussing, it prevents them from understanding information released by politicians and their parties.Information itself is hardly accessible, and when youth are able to access party material, the material is written in terms the youth are unable to understand issues when they hardly seem relevant to the young people of today. The language spoken among politicians effectively detaches youth from the current issues of politics today. In not being able to understand the issues that political parties and their politicians are discussing, youth are unable to determine the values that are at the core of the different political parties. While this could be said to be a matter of education, political culture is also a factor at play. By growing up surrounded by a culture where youth are marginalized by the politicians, stereotyped by the public, and discourage by the government, they don’t actively participate in elections or issues that might otherwise interest them. The class divide is furthered when considering the actors involved in politics.
Many people in the public, youth included, see the members of the political class as completely “untrustworthy” and “greedy”. This view of politicians has caused many youth to become disenchanted with political actors, political involvement, and government in general. Though they have been raised to hold views that have led to them being disenchanted, youth are expected to participate in an institution that they no longer have faith in. There is evidence that youth still believe in democracy, the political culture that they have been raised in stresses it, they clearly don’t believe in the class of politicians. Another reason that they are taught not to believe in politicians is because politicians don’t keep their promises, and mess up their jobs yet still have a job at the end of the day. Youth today have grown up in a world where this negative view of politicians is at the core of political culture, and it has had a noticeable effect on them.
The education and the political divide comes in here too. Youth are not taught about the values that each specific party holds. It isn’t a part of their school curriculum and for you who are interested and want to learn more, the information isn’t readily available. The main problem with the combination of partisan de- alignment and lack of education is that it has encouraged youth to become apathetic, in the case of political dropouts, or don’t want to put up with it, as in political outsiders. Coming back to political culture, many youth believe that the government should serve them, and therefore, the values that youth hold should also be held at the core of politics by the government and political actors. This is not a uniquely Canadian problem, “citizen attachment to political parties have been weakening in nearly ever advanced industrial state in the last decade”, which points to a global problem of people losing confidence in the government.
It is clear by the lack of a significant youth vote that youth have lost faith in the government. What isn’t well known is that the confidence that people have in non- governmental institutions has also decreased in recent years. The specific type of institution that people have lost faith in are all examples of hierarchical bureaucracies similar to that found in government, and include the press, churches, and law institutions. The distrust in these institutions comes into governmental distrust when considering judges. In court appointments, judges are appointed and have a lasting effect on the law and constitution of the country without them being democratically chosen. Similarly, many youth are lack trust in corporations. This is troublesome in today’s culture of neo- liberalism where the line between the private and public sectors are starting to blur.
With the increasing commoditization of public services through private investors, corporations are becoming further linked to government. In the world today, corporations hold a disproportionate level of influence in government. Also, appointments are often given to the wealthy owners of corporations. The bureaucracy of this integration is not welcome by the public who don’t appreciate the pecking order that corporations bring to government, and they don’t appreciate the integration of more hierarchy into government, In today’s culture, there is a general distrust for corporations and the bureaucratic hierarchy that often accompanies them and it only furthers the separation of the political class Being raised in a world where this is happening has had a clear effect on the political culture that youth have grown up in.
Another change that has occurred between the current generation and past ones is the current globalization of the economy. For the first time, the country, and through association politics, are seen in a global context. In the post-constitutional era, free trade is the main issue that the government represents. Free trade agreements have become pillars of the political system, and are the catalyst for globalization. Along with promoting globalization, free trade agreements have promoted the comodification of public services and have brought along change. The free trade agreements can be seen as quiet constitutionalism, meaning that they have an effect on the constitution without directly meaning to. In this era of quiet constitutionalist, values are no longer represented by the constitution because constitutional culture has begun to fade into the background. With the changing idea of what is constitutional, youth have less reason to trust the government, and are losing faith in democracy. Democracy is starting to lose importance and the lines of sovereignty are starting to blur, and both things are losing weight among youth who have been raised in an ever-changing political culture. This change is also causing a re-ordering of the relationship between the liberal components of politics, which are widely supported by youth, and the democratic side of politics, which are now limited. Free-trade agreements put limits on the power of the government, and Supra- national institutions such as the United Nations further these limits.
Other parts of political culture that have changed surround the job market and differences between generations. Unlike the previous generation, youth today live in a world without a secure job market. This affects the way the view a strong government, and the ideas that they have about social programs. While there are some aspects of the current generations life that have been stable, the job market is not one of them. With this exception, they have grown up in a stable world, and those raised in a secure world are more likely to question the place of a strong government in every day life. Materialists vs. post-materialists. Constitutionalism vs. post-constitutionalism.
Various Factors That Influence Youth Interest in Politics and Elections. (2023, Mar 24). Retrieved from http://studymoose.com/various-factors-that-influence-youth-interest-in- politics-and-elections-essay
PAR POLITICS 