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Youth in Politics: Why it’s Important and Why You Should Get Involved

The contemporary political climate in America holds immense tension, yielded by Donald Trump and Joe Biden. Common discussion in the day-to-day lives of citizens includes Black Lives Matter, climate change, racism, and a multitude of other deep-rooted issues. Despite the current relevance of these topics, each issue is rooted within the foundations of American government- an aspect we are all affected by.

Published by ‍

Jenna Rowen-Delson

June 21, 2021

Inquiry-driven, this article reflects personal views, aiming to enrich problem-related discourse.

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We may not be physically present at protests nor directly affected by a new bill, but each decision within politics acts as the first part of a chain reaction. Each decision trickles down into daily life- perhaps in the taxes of your school that changes procedures; your favorite restaurant that closes earlier; and numerous other lifestyle changes.

Given the current polarity of American politics, these issues and decisions are often overlooked by teenagers. The threat of being deemed ignorant or unintelligent by peers weighs heavily on us all, with the notion that our voices are irrelevant. This could not be further from the truth, in the most literal sense. In some states, you can pre-register to vote at 16 years old. This ability was studied by Anthony Fowler at the University of Chicago, who found that allowing future voters to pre-register increases both registration and turnout by 2.1 percentage points. Waiting to care for politics until you turn 18 means a lack of understanding, a lack of knowledge, and subsequently a lack of ability to make political choices that are important to you.

 By informing yourself early on, you can be better prepared to vote for candidates who have the same priorities as you, whether that be climate change, gun control, or abortion, etc. You can encourage others around you to do the same. Use your voice by casting your vote. 

An article by Lexi Anderson of Pratt Institute encompasses this notion quite well. Understanding politics is, “a definitive way to navigate your own moral and ideological compass.” Informing yourself can only act to your benefit.

This year, the national turnout for young voters was estimated to be 52-55%. This is compared to the 2016 presidential election, where there was a 42-44% estimate.

So in 2016, less than half of citizens ages 18 to 29 voted in 2016’s presidential election. That’s compared to 71% of those 65+. How sad is it that the very generation whose future will be affected by those being elected into office, isn’t even voting? We are letting a generation that won’t have to deal with the effects of their actions make decisions that will affect our generation’s futures. 

Many times, young people complain about how policies don’t represent what they want. Is that really a surprise? Not only do young people have a lower voter turnout and lower political participation, but the average age of House Members at the beginning of the 116th Congress was 57.6years, and that number increases to 62.9 years for Senators. 

You can’t expect older politicians to be able to address and fulfill all young people’s needs. But by participating in politics at a young age, you have the opportunity to make a change.

One of the most important things young voters should know before getting involved in politics is that your voice matters. Even if you can’t vote, there are many things you can do. These include signing petitions, registering others to vote, and contacting those representing you. Start a political club in your community, help inform others, or help a local campaign. The possibilities are endless.

I had the amazing opportunity to talk to former presidential candidate Andrew Yang about his thoughts a few weeks ago on a Zoom call Q&A session with some other young people interested in politics.

My question: “How can we encourage more young people to get interested in politics or at least be willing to learn?”

Yang: “That’s a great point and this is something I’m passionate about. That’s one of the reasons I got a Tiktok.” (You can follow Andrew Yang on Tiktok @officialandrewyang).

 “We have to make politics interesting for young people because if you’re 15, 16, and I just talk to you about something future-oriented and boring then it’s like, ‘well that sucks.’ So I think we should meet people where they are honest. You have to try and make politics fun and alive. And our politicians are bad at that. So I don’t blame young people. I blame our politicians, frankly.”

Yang then went on to say, “I would love to lower the voting age to 16, myself. Because then every American high school becomes like voter central. And then instead of saying ‘hey it’s in the abstract…’ There are so many good reasons to lower the voting age to 16.”

 “One, everyone registers, because you’re in high school, and, you know, it’s pretty easy to find you. You’re all in the same place. The younger you are the first time you vote, the more likely you are to vote the entire time. Policies would skew towards young people more because right now old people vote and young people less so. You can pay taxes starting at 16 so why can you not know where your taxes go. You can start driving at 16 so how can you be trusted with a car and not a vote? So there are all these great reasons to lower the voting age to 16.”

“In the meantime, I would try to get people interested by saying, ‘look, there’s something that’s going to be very pressing for you eventually so might as well get started on it.’ The other thing I say is you might not be able to vote, but you can bug a voter. You can get one person to vote and then it’s like you voted!”

Andrew Yang brought up several great points in his response, all of which I agree with. Politics, a lot of the time, can seem uninteresting to our generation. With the rise of social media, many politicians have used platforms like Instagram and Tiktok to engage with young voters.

Some of these include Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez on Instagram, with 8.2 million followers. Jon Ossoff, candidate for the US Senate has recently been using Tiktok to win over young voters down in Georgia, and get them to vote in the runoff election on January 5th.

With an abundance of politics-oriented social media accounts and the flow of information so readily available through social media, it is extremely easy for youth to inform themselves. If you want to learn about a particular issue but don’t want to read an entire lengthy article, there are various videos online that break each issue down. 

There isn’t just one way to get involved in politics, there are so many different ways to acquire information and get involved. Our democracy was created to give the people what they want. For our government to best reflect the needs and wants of citizens, it is up to us to get involved and make a change. Young people hold valuable information and the knowledge to make the changes that previous generations have not.

Works Cited

https://www.usa.gov/voter-registration-age-requirements

https://circle.tufts.edu/latest-research/election-week-2020#youth-voter-turnout-increased-in-2020

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2020-10-13-young-people-care-about-elections-they-just-don-t-always-show-up-to-vote-here-s-how-education-can-help

https://www.bridgealliance.us/7_ways_for_teens_to_get_involved_in_politics

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/08/upshot/youth-voting-2020-election.html

https://www.theodysseyonline.com/political-participation-importance/participating-will-expand-your-knowledge-and-relationships

https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R45583.pdf

https://studybreaks.com/thoughts/5-reasons-political-aware/

Filed Under:

Jenna Rowen-Delson is a high school sophomore with a strong interest in politics and a passion for youth involvement in politics.

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Youth in Politics: Challenges, Importance, Role (Essay and Debate)

Political participation: overview and faced challenges

“Where few take part in decisions there is little democracy; the more participation there is in decisions, the more democracy there is” (Verba & Nie, 1972). The present statement proves that the political presence of different individuals has a huge impact on democracy and policy. Hence, the present article will attempt to tackle the political participation of youth in the field of politics.

• Table of contents
• Introduction

What is youth political participation?

Must the youth participate in politics.

• Obstacles to youth participation

Meaningful political participation

So, what is the role of youth in politics after all.

Political participation refers to “those voluntary activities by which members of a society share in the selection of rulers and, directly or indirectly, in the formation of public policy” (McClosky, 1968). In other words, it encompasses citizens’ activities that affect politics in general. These participatory activities include voting, demonstrating, contacting public officials, boycotting, attending party rallies, guerrilla gardening, posting blogs, volunteering, joining flash mobs, signing petitions, buying fair-trade products, and even suicide protests (Jan W. van, 2021). According to Weiss (2020), even though “existing definitions of political participation are adequate to capture youth participation; the current literature is inconsistent in the inclusion of new modes of participation that are increasingly common among young adults.” In the same vein, Dan Maxon believes that in the youth field, political participation is used loosely to indicate activities, phenomena, and practices. He also points out that some forms of participation have a limited impact on policy-making such as youth activism and youth social action; the alternative use of public spaces; and political memes and online political debates. The latter forms of participation can take place away from political institutions, which makes political participation a challenging term to define.  Apparently, almost every activity by some citizens somehow can be understood sometimes as a form of political participation (van Deth, 2001).

Youth constitute a large portion of the population in every community. Consequently, it is imperative to give them a voice and include them in political decision-making. Not only is inclusiveness “a fundamental political and democratic right” but it is also “crucial to building stable and peaceful societies and developing policies that respond to the specific needs of younger generations.”(Goudie et al, 2018).

According to the OECD’s guide, many benefits can come from “putting youth at the heart of the government’s strategies and initiatives”:

• Taking advantage of the demographic transition : the youth represent a large portion of the population, which means that their participation can have a great impact on the balance of power. As a result, empowering the youth to take action socially, economically, and politically is of great importance.
• Encouraging innovation and economic development : youth is a great source of innovative and original ideas. Hence, engaging them and encouraging their active participation can boost the development of societies.
• Building active citizenship : only through taking on the duty to make important decisions will the youth understand how crucial their role is. When policymakers address their needs and demands, civic behaviour is strengthened and trust and transparency are promoted between the government and the citizens.
• Encouraging an online debate: living in a digital age, and understanding how technology works are useful to improve youth interaction and engagement.

Bárta (2021) points out that there are four main aims of youth political participation:

• Right-based aims: youth actually have access to mechanisms that enable them to participate effectively.
• Empowerment aims : youth speak their minds and express themselves freely regarding decision-making and political processes.
• Efficiency aims : allow the youth to develop informed processes and regulations.
• Developmental aims : enable the youth to acquire the necessary skills and competencies to become efficient actors.

It is safe to conclude that supporting the acquisition of commitment and participation from an early age through the reinforcement of civic education and citizenship as well as community involvement is very important.

Obstacles to youth in politics

According to The ACE Electoral Knowledge Network website, youth political engagement occurs at several levels and in various contexts, namely on structural, individual, and organizational levels:

On the structural level, the following elements are included: age requirements to vote or run for office, age restriction in campaigning in some countries, lack of political finance, Social and cultural traditions, and women’s discrimination based on their age and gender.

On the individual level, there exists Distrust in political institutions, a sack of confidence and trust in EMBs, lack of access to/knowledge about political processes, and social and economic exclusion/marginalization.

On the organizational level, there is limited data on youth political participation and a lack of an exclusive EMB youth policy and sustainable funding.

Also referred to as ‘effective practice or participation’, meaningful political participation is a concept with many definitions across the literature. However, the following aspects are common in most definitions according to Bárta et al (2021):

Information and communication : in order to achieve favourable results, young people should have access to the latest information at all times. This fosters their knowledge and hones their awareness about different matters. The implementation of youth-focused conferences, workshops and other capacity-building formats can also facilitate a great deal achieve meaningful political participation.

Authority and voice: giving young people the authority to express their ideas and thoughts publicly is not enough. Other stakeholders in political involvement procedures must also hear and respect their voices.

Power sharing : young people should also have the opportunity where they can actively participate in decision-making processes alongside stakeholders. This obviously should be executed in a transparent environment to attain efficiency.

Transparency and accountability: these elements are imperative to achieve meaningful participation. Young people should be fully briefed on the procedures and mechanisms that are taking place and affecting them. They should be aware of the roles they play, as well as the other players that are engaged and in what capacity.

Material and non-material support : no matter what their background, status, gender, or identity, young people should be able to participate freely and safely. They should also feel welcomed and appreciated during their political activities. Stakeholders should also recognise their efforts and engage them.

According to the Palestinian News and Info Agency ( Wafa ), conforming to democratic standards, young people are to fulfil their role in politics as follows:

• Strengthening the collective spirit between the youth to value the teamwork experience.
• Selecting experienced youth with qualified competencies, such as modern management methods.
• Enhancing a sense of belonging in young people to render them conscious of regulations and laws.
• Encouraging initiatives among young people by unleashing their energies to get creative and innovative results. Awarding them can be a great incentive too.
• Pushing young people to open up to other cultures through meetings with youth organizations in different countries, will promote relations of solidarity and cooperation between nations as an alternative to war and aggression tendencies.
• Enhancing the role of youth in public service through volunteering in different sectors to have a better understanding of their communities. 
• Discovering and adopting the different talents and potentials of young people by giving them opportunities to give, innovate and develop in various practical, scientific, artistic and other fields. Investing in their capacities would have many benefits in the future
• Promoting the values of tolerance, goodwill, and acceptance of the “other” from a position of difference and acknowledging their existence.
• Supporting the plurality of ideas and convictions in society as part of the values and principles of democracy creates a safety valve for the promotion of the general community and the official political environment.

To conclude, creating a legitimate, accountable, democratic system requires parity of the political presence of its members. The more all parties in society are involved in the political aspects, the more the country will strive. Young people, who make up an important party usually in countries, play a huge role in the future of politics. Not only do they come up with innovative solutions, but also one can notice a number of positive outcomes such as enhanced social skills, better conduct, higher academic performance, higher self-esteem, and higher self-efficacy. As a result, it is time for decision-makers to act in order to involve the youth in policy-making, enabling them to participate meaningfully.

Bárta, O. et al (2021). Meaningful Youth Political Participation In Europe: Concepts, Patterns And Policy Implications. Council of Europe and European Commission.

Faire Participer Les Jeunes Au Gouvernement Ouvert. Guide de communication. OCDE.

• Jan W. van Deth. (2021). What is political participation?
• Weiss, J. (2020). What Is Youth Political Participation? Literature Review on Youth Political Participation and Political Attitudes
• Young people’s role in the process of societal change. Link: https://info.wafa.ps/ar_page.aspx?id=3202
• Youth, Political Participation and Decision-Making. The United Nations.

Kawthar Marchli

Kawthar Marchli is a freelance translator translating from and into Arabic, English, and French. She got her Master thesis from King Fahd School of Translation in 2020. Since her graduation, she had the opportunity to translate a number of lengthy works (reports, guides, drafts, documents research, advertisements, surveys, manuals...) in the three languages, related to the political field administration, banking, etc. In her free time, she loves to read books, listen to podcasts, watch movies or take pictures.

Essay on Role of Youth in Politics

Students are often asked to write an essay on Role of Youth in Politics in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Role of Youth in Politics

Introduction.

Youth, the future of a nation, play a crucial role in politics. They are the backbone of a country who can lead towards progress.

Political Awareness

Youths should be politically aware to understand the country’s issues. With their energy and fresh ideas, they can bring about significant changes.

Participation in Politics

Active participation in politics is vital. Youths can join political parties, participate in elections, or voice their opinions to contribute to the political process.

The role of youth in politics is significant. They can shape the future of the nation with their enthusiasm and innovative ideas.

250 Words Essay on Role of Youth in Politics

The role of youth in politics is crucial in shaping the future of a nation. As the torchbearers of change, they are instrumental in driving the political landscape towards a more inclusive and progressive direction.

Political Participation

Youth participation in politics is not just about voting; it extends to engaging in political debates, policy-making, and even holding political office. Their fresh perspectives and innovative ideas can contribute to the creation of more effective and relevant policies.

A Catalyst for Change

Young people, with their energy and passion, often serve as catalysts for political change. They are typically more open to embracing new ideas and are less constrained by traditional political ideologies. This makes them a potent force in challenging the status quo and pushing for political reform.

Overcoming Challenges

However, the path to political participation for the youth is not without challenges. They often face barriers such as age restrictions, lack of opportunities, and the perception that they are inexperienced. Overcoming these obstacles requires concerted efforts from all stakeholders, including the government, educational institutions, and civil society.

In conclusion, the youth’s role in politics is vital for the growth and development of a nation. They bring a fresh perspective, are willing to challenge the status quo, and are often at the forefront of political change. Encouraging and facilitating their participation in politics is essential for a vibrant and progressive political landscape.

500 Words Essay on Role of Youth in Politics

The significance of youth in politics.

The role of youth in politics is pivotal, being the backbone of any nation. They represent the future and are responsible for shaping society’s political landscape. The youth’s energy, innovative ideas, and resilience can bring about significant changes in the political sphere, highlighting their importance in the process.

Driving Change and Innovation

Young people, with their fresh perspectives and willingness to challenge the status quo, often act as catalysts for change. They question existing political systems and advocate for reforms, leading to a dynamic and evolving political environment. Their innovative ideas can lead to the creation of policies that are more in line with the changing times and societal needs.

Representation and Inclusion

The youth constitutes a significant portion of the population in many countries. Hence, their representation in politics is crucial to ensure the interests of this demographic are catered to. Their active involvement in politics can lead to the inclusion of youth-centric policies, addressing issues like education, employment, and mental health.

Political Awareness and Participation

Political awareness among the youth is essential for a robust democracy. It enables them to make informed decisions, participate in debates, and contribute to the political discourse. Their participation, either as voters or candidates, can significantly impact election outcomes.

Challenges and Solutions

Despite the potential benefits, youth participation in politics is often hindered by various barriers. These include age restrictions for candidacy, lack of opportunities, and societal stereotypes. To overcome these challenges, it is essential to create a conducive environment that encourages youth participation. This can be achieved through measures such as lowering the age limit for political candidacy, providing mentorship programs, and promoting political literacy among the youth.

The Way Forward

Promoting youth participation in politics is a collective responsibility. Governments, educational institutions, and civil society organizations need to work together to foster an environment that encourages youth engagement in politics. It is also crucial for the youth to seize the opportunities and make their voices heard.

In conclusion, the role of youth in politics is integral to the development and progression of any nation. Their active participation can lead to a more inclusive and forward-thinking political landscape. As the leaders of tomorrow, the youth have the power to shape the future of their countries, making their involvement in politics not just desirable but necessary.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

If you’re looking for more, here are essays on other interesting topics:

• Essay on Honesty in Politics
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Review article, what is youth political participation literature review on youth political participation and political attitudes.

• Institute of Political Science, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany

Looking at political participation behavior of young adults in contemporary Europe, this paper provides the reader with a map of different terminologies and logics that are used to discuss youth political participation. The existing literature is examined through the lens of five guiding questions: what defines youth political participation? How does youth political participation differ from adult political participation? How do young adults develop political attitudes? How does youth political participation differ across Europe? What methods are being used to analyze youth political participation? For those researching youth political participation for the first time, this paper offers a useful overview of the topic. At the same time, it gives researchers who are already well-informed the opportunity to reflect on the current state of research in this field. Finally, this paper indicates where future research is needed.

1. Introduction

Looking at the political participation behavior of young adults in contemporary Europe, one is faced with a contradiction. Representatives of the disengagement paradigm within the literature underpin their argument with empirical findings, such as young adults being the least likely to vote in national elections, the drop of youth membership in political parties, and generally low levels of political interest. On the other hand, the literature on an engagement paradigm of youth participation represents a more optimistic view as it is based on findings in the context of new forms of political participation, which are more appealing to and are used more frequently by young adults.

Both perspectives raise questions about the role of young adults in European democracies. The two mentioned positions represent the respective end points of a much more nuanced line of research on this topic. Research in this area can appear confusing, but overall it is clear that a comprehensive picture of both the degree and the modes of youth political participation is lacking. This paper tries to take a first step in the direction of addressing this problem. The goal is to provide the reader with a map of the different terminologies and logics that are used to discuss youth political participation. To attain this goal, this paper presents insights from the existing literature on the following guiding questions:

❖ What defines political participation?

❖ How does youth political participation differ from adult political participation?

❖ How do young adults develop political attitudes?

❖ How does youth political participation differ across Europe?

❖ What methods are being used to analyze youth political participation?

The first step is to provide a structured inventory. On the one hand, this paper will be helpful for those encountering this research area for the first time as it provides an overview of the previous research in the field of youth political participation in Europe. On the other, it offers well-informed researchers the opportunity to reflect on the current state of research in this field. In addition, this paper clearly points toward where further research is needed.

With this in mind, I develop three main arguments within this paper. First, although existing definitions of political participation are adequate to capture youth participation, the current literature is inconsistent in the inclusion of new modes of participation that are increasingly common among young adults. Second, there are both methodological and substantive problems within the existing literature, which emerge from young adults' different conceptions of politics as well as from their differing awareness to adults of what constitutes political participation. Third, and resulting from this, the current state of research in this area lacks larger cross-national studies that take into account an adequate conception of how the youth define political participation and that conduct comparative research on youth political participation behavior, which is necessary if we agree that young people hold the key for the future functioning of our political systems ( Hooghe et al., 2004 ).

The rest of this paper is structured as follows. The next section gives an overview of the development of political participation research. In doing so, it includes a review of the definitions of political participation then and now and clarifies why it is important to be familiar with those definitions when looking at the political participation behavior of young adults. The following section deals with the (potential) differences between the political participation behavior of young adults and adults. Besides an overview of the ongoing debate on whether and, if so, what kind of differences there are, this chapter clearly indicates which role the question of measurement plays in this. The fourth section focuses on the political attitudes of young adults after reviewing political socialization research, for political socialization plays an important role in the formation of the political attitudes of young adults. After this, section 5 gives an overview of youth political participation across Europe. Section 6 then presents methods previously used in the context of youth political participation. As usual, the final section summarizes the previous sections and highlights which questions remain unanswered. It thereby tries to provide an answer to the question of youth political participation as it actually is and indicates where future research is needed.

2. The Development of Political Participation Repertoires and Research

Political Participation research has undergone significant developments over the course of the last few decades. Multiple disciplines have contributed to broadening our understanding of the field, but because of this multidisciplinary input it has become less clear what the underlying core assumptions and definitions are that make up the term Political Participation (PP). This section therefore sketches the development of the term and answers the core question of what defines political participation.

Signing a petition, joining a party, or casting a vote are the most commonly accepted actions deemed as PP. But that's about as far as agreements go. To answer the question of how PP can be defined, one has to go back a few decades. In 1973, Robert Dahl offered a first glimpse of what it might mean. In “Poliarchy: Participation and Opposition” he declares PP an essential part of modern democracies as it enables citizens to hold their governments accountable ( Dahl, 1973 ). However, Dahl didn't explicitly define his concept of participation. His definition only implicitly covered actions within the given institutional framework of a nation, meaning that actions such as consumerism ( Stolle et al., 2005 ) or just hitting a “like” button wouldn't be categorized as participation, even though they could be seen as holding governments accountable. His works nevertheless contain some fundamental elements of our modern conception of PP—namely accountability as well as the dichotomy of private citizens and professional politicians, which can also be found in the well acknowledged works of Verba and Nie (1972) .

To these researchers, political participation is “ those activities by private citizens that are more or less directly aimed at influencing the selection of governmental personnel and/or the actions they take” ( Verba and Nie, 1972 , p. 2). According to Verba and Nie, private citizens have the ability to participate in politics not just by casting votes or joining parties but through numerous other activities. Their suggested typology consists of voting, campaign activity, contacting public officials, and cooperative or communal activities.

This definition has paved the way for the analysis of actions such as protests, strikes, or petitions as activities that participate in politics through other means than elections ( Verba and Nie, 1972 , p. 47). Similar concepts have been presented by Parry et al. (1992) or Pattie et al. (2004) , who, in contrast to Verba and Nie (1972) , stress that political participation does not necessarily have to address governments but could also target other institutions or even organizations. PP can therefore affect the policymaking process as well as services provided by governments, such as education or health care ( Pattie et al., 2004 ; Fox, 2014 ). Brady (1998) adds that, in order to qualify as PP, actions taken by private citizens must be observable, manifest, and voluntary, but he also focuses on interactions between citizens and political elites.

Parallel to developments in participation-research, authors such as Flanagan (2013) , Norris (2002) , Putnam (2001) , Zukin et al. (2006) , or Daskalopoulou (2018) have been working on the concept of civic engagement, which has several intersections with PP research. The concept of civic engagement has been used to analyze all kinds of citizen behavior, including activities and actions, which can but don't necessarily have to be political. Putnam's “bowling alone,” e.g., also includes going to a bowling alley as a vital indicator of engagement. The ever-growing repertoire of indicators has therefore led to accusations of conceptual stretching ( Berger, 2009 ), meaning that the conception is too broad and therefore not suitable for researchers. Most authors' conceptions of PP from the first period of research have three aspects in common: Actions have to be taken by private citizens, not politicians; these actions have to be voluntary, meaning structural forces that require citizens to take certain actions wouldn't count as participation; and their actions need to target governments, institutions, organizations or NGOs. These three aspects are at the “ hard core” ( Lakatos and Musgrave, 1970 ) of almost every single contemporary definition of PP.

van Deth (2001) nicely summarizes the evolution of political participation repertoires between the 1940s and the 1990s by tracing the publication of landmark studies. In the 1940s and 1950s, PP was mainly restricted to voting and campaign activities. In the early 1960s, though, appeared the later so-called “conventional” modes of PP. At this time, “ political participation was broadly understood as activities concerned with traditional conceptualizations of politics as campaigning by politicians and parties, and with well-accepted contacts between citizens and public officials” ( van Deth, 2001 , p. 5). During the 1970s, these conventional forms were expanded and “unconventional” forms, which were not in line with the societal norms of the 1970s, appeared. These unconventional forms included, among others, protest and rejection as well as new social movements, such as women's or pacifist movements ( van Deth, 2001 ). Later, in the 1990s, the borderline between the political and non-political spheres of modern society disappeared as the political participation repertoire came to include “civil” activities such as volunteering and social engagement ( van Deth, 2001 ). Nowadays, further forms of PP have emerged and challenge PP research. The new forms use non-political behavior to express political opinions, and what was once defined as unconventional or elite-challenging is now commonplace. Therefore, these forms can no longer be captured by a distinction between conventional and unconventional PP ( Teorell et al., 2007 ). Furthermore, García-Albacete (2014) has found that citizens' political involvement has changed recently and argues that these changes characterize today's PP repertoire and have led to the distinction between institutionalized and non-institutionalized PP. First, “ the agencies or structures through which citizens are mobilized and participate have (…) been transformed, with the spread of new social movements and advocacy networks ” ( García-Albacete, 2014 , p. 15). Second, individualized patterns of participation are growing as ties to political and civic organizations become weaker ( García-Albacete, 2014 ). The now widely used distinction between institutionalized and non-institutionalized PP capture forms of PP which happen within the institutional framework (e.g., voting or party membership) and those which happen outside of the institutional framework (e.g., protest or boycotting). This distinction between institutionalized and non-institutionalized PP is particularly important for any kind of research on youth participation, given the fact that young adults are disproportionately more likely to participate through non-institutionalized means.

Adapting to or being challenged by new forms of participation is a continuous process. One of the more recent developments in this regard is online participation. The debate about how and if online participation fits into existing concepts is ongoing and vibrant ( Gibson and Cantijoch, 2013 ; Dayican, 2014 ; Halupka, 2014 ; Kristofferson et al., 2014 ). Authors such as Morozov (2009) declare it as an illusion of participation, whereas Rojas and Puig-i-Abril (2009) see it as “ expressive participation” which constitutes a “ subdimension” ( Rojas and Puig-i-Abril, 2009 , p. 907) of political participation. Because of this heated debate and the numerous ways of integrating online participation into existing forms of participation, Theocharis (2015) warns that the entire concept of PP could face a risk of overstretching.

In order to avoid this fate, van Deth (2014) has offered a distinct concept of PP, which should enable researchers to “ recognize a mode of participation if [they] see one” ( van Deth, 2014 , p. 5). In order to “ see one,” researchers should look for these characteristics of participation: it is an activity; it is voluntary and not ordered by a ruling class or required by law; it refers to people in their role as non-professionals or amateurs; and it concerns government, politics, or the state ( van Deth, 2014 ). This description represents the minimum definition to which further variants are added, namely “ two additional variants based on the target (politics/government/state or problems/community), and two based on circumstantial evidence (contextual and motivational)” ( Theocharis and van Deth, 2018a , p. 81). This conceptual map results in five analytically unambiguous modes of political participation ( Theocharis and van Deth, 2018a ). Thus, the first form (minimal definition) focuses on the arena of participation rather than its outcomes, while the second and third forms deal with the targets of the activities rather than relying on the goals or intentions of the people. In the fourth form, the political nature of the activities is based on contextual evidence, and only at the very last stage (form five) are the intentions/aims of the participants considered in order to identify a form of political participation. The authors therefore illustrate that “ the advantage of following these decision rules is not only that we can distinguish between political acts that fit into definitions with stricter or loser requirements, but also that we can systematically exclude those who do not meet the definitional requirements” ( Theocharis and van Deth, 2018b ). Based on this concept, online PP could be recognized as a form of PP. However, this example also reveals that PP cannot be defined in a simple way, which is also reflected in the existing literature. Instead, it raises the question of whether a definition such as the one by van Deth does permit the development of means for unifying the existing discussion. At the same time, such a broad and yet clearly defined definition offers the possibility of being able to classify forms newly emerging in the literature. In the course of ever-changing social situations and behaviors, this seems to be a key aspect of developing a definition of PP, which can be used over the long term.

3. Differences Between Youth and Adult Political Participation

The previous section has already shown that there is no need for a separate definition of youth political participation; instead, the various forms of political participation used by young adults is of central importance. Following this, the question arises as to what extent the PP behavior of young adults differs from that of other groups. A look at the previous research shows a perceived gap between young adult and adults. Many studies show the lowest scores in almost all areas of political participation for young adults and thus the image emerges that young people are not sufficiently engaged in politics. This perception is based upon trends such as voting in elections, where young adults have the lowest rates, and these rates continue to decrease just as the level of youth membership in political parties is decreasing ( Kimberlee, 2002 ; Hooghe et al., 2004 ; Fieldhouse et al., 2007 ; Cross and Young, 2008 ). To capture young people's disengagement in politics, it can be said that “ young people are less concerned with politics, less politically knowledgeable, do not participate in social or political activities, are more apathetic, and have low levels of political interest” ( Quintelier, 2007 , p. 165). Even if this representation seems clear, the disengagement of young adults in politics remains a contested issue in the literature. At this point, three central questions need to be clarified. First, is there a real difference between the political participation behavior of young adults and adults? Second, which factors lead to a different behavior between young and old? Third, does this really mean that young adults are politically disengaged?

The first, and to some authors most important, reason for differences between youth and adult political participation is lifecycle. Here, one can find a curvilinear effect of age, which means that participation rises from youth until middle age, then decreases with old age. Scholars have been researching this trend for decades ( Jennings, 1979 ), and it must be clearly differentiated between lifecycle effects and generational effects. In the context of lifecycle effects, what matters is the increase or decrease of political participation resulting from different stages of life ( Nie et al., 1974 ).

In this sense, political participation is nobody's priority as it competes against more pressing personal concerns, especially for young people ( Highton and Wolfinger, 2001 ). As people have a finite amount of time, engagement with politics is more costly for those who have not yet sorted out their lives (ibid.). In addition to the fact that young adults gain more experience with the electoral and political process as they age, some specific steps of adulthood have proven to have an effect on political participation behavior. These include, among others, settling down, marriage ( Stoker and Jennings, 1995 ), graduating and getting a job. Some authors state that these results relate purely to the influence on voting turnout and that the influence of lifecycle effects on other forms of political participation can only explain minor differences ( Quintelier, 2007 ). However, not all researchers share this view. Research in the area of non-institutionalized participation shows that lifecycle effects are also relevant here. Specifically, they concern personal availability and refer to “ the absence of personal constraints that may increase the costs and risks of movement participation, such as full-time employment, marriage, and family responsibilities” ( McAdam, 1986 , p. 70). The social movement research shows relevant influences on young adults, in the sense that the absence of these kinds of constraints facilitates their participation ( Beyerlein and Hipp, 2006 ; Saunders et al., 2012 ; Earl et al., 2017 ).

The theory of generation effects is based on the assumption that pre-adult socialization exerts enduring effects on political socialization. In this sense, the adolescence of each individual is the period relevant for the development of political thinking. Building on this argument, some authors assume that as today's young adults are less active, they will never reach the level of political participation of the current elderly ( Martikainen et al., 2005 ). One explanation for this is that young adults today are having more difficulty in reaching the milestones of adulthood ( Arnett, 2014 ; Tagliabue et al., 2014 ) and that this results in an irreversible delay in political participation. Studies show that young adults retain these characteristics that distinguish them from previous generations and that this will lead to a replacement of the current electorate by a more passive generation of political participants ( Quintelier, 2007 ).

Another reason for the perceived different behavior between the age groups derives from the varying definitions of the political or of political behavior. Every researcher needs to base his or her research on a clear definition. At the same time, this definition of the political or what is defined as political participation must also be used and accepted by the survey population. This is exactly where differences between young adults and adults emerge. Do young adults and adults view the same activities as political? Generally, studies show a difference between the definitions of researchers and survey participants. For example, Parry et al. (1992) found that only 18% of their survey participants interpreted a list of activities as political, which the researchers also defined as political. For this reason, some researchers call for a broader definition, which would lead to higher noted levels of political engagement (e.g., Roker et al., 1999 ). The definition question is also relevant when thinking of non-institutionalized forms of political participation. Young adults might not define their actions as political, even though they are actually political. Therefore, it is both about the individual's conception of politics/the political as well as their awareness of doing something political. Only a few studies focus on young adults' definition of the political, but they show that young adults use a narrower definition than both researchers and adults (e.g., Bynner and Ashford, 1994 ; Andolina et al., 2002 ). This results in young adults being less interested than adults in politics, because they do not view politics, in their narrow definition, as relevant to their lives ( Andolina et al., 2002 ). In this sense, “ the low political participation rate among youth is a by-product of their narrow conception of politics and their impression that politicians do not truly care about their needs” ( Quintelier, 2007 , p. 169). Hence, youth disengagement is a result of the organization of politics rather than of the youth's own lack of interest. For this reason, research is growing on how young adults define political participation and what they perceive as political participation ( Henn et al., 2002 , 2005 ; O'Toole, 2003 ; O'Toole et al., 2003a ). They show that previous studies used a concept of participation that is too narrow and that, e.g., the topic of non-participation as an act of political action has so far not been sufficiently addressed ( O'Toole, 2003 ).

Finally, a study by Quintelier (2007) , which specifically examined the differences between the age groups, revealed that young adults and adults seem to be similar in their political attitudes, with the exception that young people have fewer opportunities to participate politically. Furthermore, they state that there are differences with regard to the engagement in specific forms of political participation as young adults tend to participate more in non-institutionalized forms. This leads to the conclusion that “ it seems as if the problem of youth political participation is less a matter of whether they participate, and more a matter of where they participate” ( Rainsford, 2017 , p. 2).

4. Political Attitudes of the Youth

Just like the research on political participation, contributions to the field of political attitudes have also broadened our understanding of how political attitudes develop and how the political attitudes of young adults differ from those of adults. This section takes the different approaches to socialization and the debated inputs from other fields and focuses on development, maturation, and the stability of attitudes in order to answer how young adults develop political attitudes.

Hyman (1959 , p. 25) thought of political socialization as an individual's “(…) learning of social patterns corresponding to his societal positions as mediated through various agencies of society .” Considering that it is one of the most commonly used definitions of political socialization, it is surprising that researchers had mostly analyzed family influence first and foremost and neglected various agencies of society. Furthermore, Sapiro (2004) points out that, in its early days, dedicated research on political socialization ( Easton et al., 1969 ; Searing et al., 1973 ; Jennings and Niemi, 1974 ) mostly focused on shared party affiliations, participation in voluntary organizations, or the genuine political interest of children and their parents' possible influence on it. However, scholars have repeatedly faced the same methodological challenge, since young children do not possess many issue beliefs at all ( Searing et al., 1973 ). This makes it hard to identify inferences valuable to political science. Hess and Torney-Purta (1967) , on the other hand, claim that children are able to express political opinions and partisanship. This uncertainty caused researchers ( Hanks, 1981 ; Percheron and Jennings, 1981 ; Nieuwbeerta and Wittebrood, 1995 ) to shift their focal point toward adolescents and young adults instead of children, because their issue beliefs could be accessed more easily due to the wider scope of methods available for gathering data. The driving force behind socialization research until now has been a biologically sound core assumption: The neurological structure, senso-motoric skills, as well as temperament, reactivity, semantic networks and behavior of infants and adolescents differs from adults ( Kagan, 2003 , p. 6–8). Dollard and Miller (1950) argue that this difference slowly deteriorates through learning because “ human behavior is learned” ( Dollard and Miller, 1950 , p. 25).

In the “ heyday” ( Niemi and Hepburn, 2010 , p. 10; van Deth et al., 2011 , p. 48) of political socialization research the Columbia school ( Berelson et al., 1954 ; Butler and Stokes, 1974 ) and Michigan School ( Campbell et al., 1960 ; Easton et al., 1969 ) dominated the discourse. Both schools found that political affiliation and attitudes toward institutions and the authorities strongly correlate with whatever interests one's parents had and that these interests didn't change much over the span of a lifetime. Socialization research was equal to research on preference or opinion inheritance; almost all research focused exclusively on the United States and also suffered from selection biases as they mostly included white middle-class Americans. Niemi and Sobieszek (1977) note that this bias was compensated for mainly by Abramson (1977) and García (1973 ), who tried to answer why people of color feel less politically efficacious throughout multiple generations. Researchers posed interesting questions but couldn't identify any causal mechanisms. Clarke (1978) and Percheron and Jennings (1981) dissected differences between American and French families, concluding that “ (…) the object of partisan socialization within the family is country specific” ( Percheron and Jennings, 1981 , p. 434), which remains true today.

However, political socialization is not only country specific; it also depends on the respective political context. This raises the question of generational dependency, i.e., if it makes a difference whether young adults themselves or their parents have been socialized in a specific political context. The various studies on this question reveal that political socialization is influenced by the broader context both during one's own political socialization ( Grasso et al., 2019 ) and during the transmission from parents to children. In this way, researchers have shown that “ if parents are politically engaged and frequently discuss politics with the child, transmission rates rise substantially, particularly on topics of general political significance and salience” ( Jennings et al., 2009 ). Here, regular political events, as well as more episodic events, offer socialization opportunities for parents ( Valentino and Sears, 1998 ).

Furthermore, Jennings (1984) demonstrated that socialization can also be observed through social class and not just the direct transmission from parents to their children. This made a multitude of arguments part of the socialization process. According to Niemi and Hepburn (1995) , up until the 1990s research had been suffering from two flawed implicit assumptions: Political attitudes, opinions and assumptions of today remain mostly the same tomorrow, and early learning is more important than learning in later life. Instead, they argue that adolescents' attitudes do change, often substantially, and do not necessarily settle just because they turned 18 and/or moved out. Only emerging longitudinal studies ( Hanks, 1981 ; Alwin and Krosnick, 1991 ; Smith, 1999 ) made such findings possible. Niemi and Hepburn (1995) therefore demanded a revitalization of political socialization theory and research that would abandon these flawed assumptions. As if they had heard the call, Nieuwbeerta and Wittebrood (1995) challenged one of the cornerstones of socialization research: the idea of fathers being dominant in the transmission of party preferences. They found that there was a gender specific difference in the transmissions of these preferences, challenging decades of previous research. Their Dutch case showed that daughters were more likely to share their mother's party preference and sons were more likely to share their father's. With the focus on women, this influence of a mother on her daughter was also confirmed 15 years later in a Canadian context ( Gidengil et al., 2010 ). Family settings change over time and different kinds of settings—such as stay-at-home parents, patchwork or single parenting—grow in numbers, which could lead to individualization and growing issue heterogeneity ( Du Bois-Reymond et al., 2001 ; Inglehart and Welzel, 2005 ). The realization that “ (…) socialization nowadays clearly occurs under different circumstances” ( van Deth et al., 2011 , p. 148) has cast doubt on most previous findings regarding the influence of parents. Many of core assumptions of socialization theories could not be reproduced with more sophisticated methods ( Sears, 1990 ; Jennings, 2007 ), and research therefore still suffers from significant blind spots. “ The questions, methods, and assumptions have been changed by 40 years of scholarship, political experience including regime change into and out of democracy, and altered political sensibilities” ( Sapiro, 2004 , p. 19). Political socialization theory struggles to deliver on its promises:

“ correlations between parents and their (mostly) biological children, with no way of separating the effects of the environment the parents provide from the effects of the genes they provide, and no way of separating the effects of the home environment from the effects of the environment outside the home. The evidence, in other words, is ambiguous.” ( Harris, 2000 , p. 626).

Thus, it cannot only be parents who exert influence. While most researchers still assume that family has some influence, they still do not know how much of an influence that is. Other places of socialization that receive a lot of attention are the school, peers, and the media ( Blais and Carty, 1990 ). Research on the influence of school has existed for a long time, and from the beginning its results have been in the area of conflict between those who see an influence ( Himmelweit and Swift, 1969 ; Palonsky, 1987 ) and those who do not ( Hyman, 1959 ; Easton et al., 1969 ). A central problem here is the difficulty of isolating the school effect from other effects ( Banks and Roker, 1994 ). For this reason, researchers especially in more recent studies, try to keep the framework conditions constant, e.g., by looking at samples that vary only in one characteristic, such as the type of school. This should facilitate the isolation of the influence of the various factors from each other. Examples for Finland ( Koskimaa and Rapeli, 2015 ) and Belgium ( Quintelier, 2015 ) show that school has an influence, without being the most central one. Instead, in addition to family influence, the influence of peers is in the foreground. It has even been shown that “ peers, through discussion and diversity, are even more influential and successful in creating greater political participation” ( Quintelier, 2015 , p. 65) than the family. Nevertheless, the media are also assigned a relevant role here. While earlier studies dealt with the influence of different forms of media, such as television news or newspapers ( Atkin and Gantz, 1978 ; Garramore and Atkin, 1986 ), researchers have only recently begun to assess the influence of social media on the process of political socialization. The argument in relation to social media would be that they are characterized by less distinct boundaries between non-political and political activities, thereby lowering the thresholds of political engagement ( Ekström and Shehata, 2018 ). However, previous studies can only partially confirm this (ibid.). This research strand therefore requires supplementary studies.

In addition to studies on parental and other social as well as structural transmission, a branch of interdisciplinary research is steadily growing which focuses on the genetic inheritance of attitudes and norms ( Martin et al., 1986 ; Bouchard et al., 1990 ; Bouchard and McGue, 2003 ; Alford et al., 2005 ; Bell et al., 2009 ; Hatemi et al., 2011 ; Kudrnac and Lyons, 2017 ). These studies look at the development of attitudes, norms and values amongst twins or parents and their offspring either in a setting of continuous exposure to the parent/sibling or in a setting with deliberate discontinuities in their biographies. Moreover, the results appear promising: “ If father and mother both hold a highly intensive just-world belief, the probability that their child will also hold a strong belief in a just world is very high” ( Schönpflug and Bilz, 2009 , p. 229). It is important to stress that researchers also warn that most genetic association studies greatly overinterpret their findings ( Benjamin et al., 2012 ).

Beside these studies, and in the context of a more interdisciplinary view of the topic, psychologists like to refer to attitudes as “ a person's general evaluation of an object (where ‘object' is understood in a broad sense encompassing persons, events, products, policies, institutions and so on) ” ( O'Keefe, 2015 , p. 13). However, social scientists struggle with this definition as it is far too broad to operate with. Batista Foguet and Saris (1997) would argue that the outcome of the aforementioned evaluation would have to be stable over time and that it would have to be consistent with previous evaluation in order to constitute an attitude. Researchers seem to agree on the fact that the backbone of an attitude is stability ( Alwin and Krosnick, 1991 ; Wilson and Hodges, 1992 ; Zaller et al., 1992 ), even though critics argue that stability is not necessary for attitudes ( Kahneman et al., 1999 ). But what happens to evaluation during maturation? Hooghe and Wilkenfeld (2008) argue that attitude development during maturation is not the same thing as changing an attitude: “ Attitude development requires change in the quality of thinking, rather than merely change in thinking” ( Hooghe and Wilkenfeld, 2008 , p. 156). Previous authors had denied the existence of attitudes in young adults ( Marsh, 1971 ; Searing et al., 1973 ).

Because of this maturation process, the attitudes of young adults differ from those of adults in many policy fields. But what attitudes are we talking about here? “Civic culture” by Almond and Verba (1963) is often ( Galston, 2001 ; Sapiro, 2004 ; Dalton, 2008 ; Kam and Palmer, 2008 ; Quintelier and Hooghe, 2011 ; Hoskins et al., 2015 ) cited as encompassing a vital set of attitudes, including political interest and political trust, and, depending on the research design, researchers often measure civic culture by surveying interest and/or trust in politics. The stereotypical picture would be that young adults are less interested, more negative and that they don't trust political elites as such ( Quintelier, 2007 ). As Rekker et al. (2015) has shown, multiple longitudinal studies reproduce the same result: Younger cohorts are less conservative on cultural issues but not on economic issues. Two specific fields of this are ethnocentrism and egalitarianism. Furlong and Cartmel (2012) confirmed these findings as well. Young adults also appear to be less materialistic ( Rudig and Bennie, 1993 ). Alwin and Krosnick (1991) argue that the maturation process interfered with the core characteristic of attitude, namely stability. In their setting, the youngest group, whose members were aged between 18 and 25, was the least stable as far as their attitudes were concerned. Quintelier and Hooghe (2011) , on the other hand, argue that attitudes among adolescents develop early and are likely to remain stable until adulthood. Eckstein et al. (2012) found common ground between both realms and argue that most young adults agree on aspects of good citizenship such as voting, helping others or taking part in organizations. But Henn et al. (2005) point toward a difference between attitude and action in the UK as young people are less likely to vote and less likely to even register for it in the first place. Eckstein et al. (2012) also mention a key issue of the entire field:

“ (…) there is still a lack of studies explicitly investigating young people's orientations toward political behaviors over a longer period of time in order to depict development. Furthermore, longitudinal studies that did account for changes revealed no coherent pattern of results” ( Eckstein et al., 2012 , p. 491).

The scarce research shows that young people's attitudes appear to be somewhat different from those of adults. In particular, the relationship between development, maturation and the stability of one's attitudes seems to be one of the most researched topics, yet it offers only a few insights. Eckstein et al. (2012) can only be supported in their demand for more longitudinal studies in this field.

5. Differences in Youth Political Participation Across Europe

Having discussed the possible differences that exist between young adults and adults and the role that political socialization plays, the next step is to look at how young adults and their participation differ across Europe. This section aims to illustrate the diversity of participation of young adults, which has already been covered by existing research. Of course, this cannot be an exhaustive view of all existing studies. Instead, it offers a nuanced view into different regions of Europe and, together with the following section on methods, provides the basis for identifying the research gaps in this area. Generally, each of the EU-member states' polities offers distinct institutionalized ways of participating. In 26 of the 27 member states, citizens need to be at least 18 years old in order to be eligible to vote; Austria, with its active voting-age of 16, is the exception. Keeping in mind these structural differences, this overview will nevertheless look at both the institutionalized and non-institutionalized participation of young adults in different regions of Europe.

Research on Northern European countries has had a great impact on questions of association membership and its effects on political participation. Torpe (2003) indicates that, among Danish youth, membership in associations is becoming looser and that this membership don't necessarily influence the likelihood of political participation. Coe et al. (2016) took a different approach and directly surveyed 10 political activists aged between 17 and 19 in Northern Sweden. On the basis of this study, Coe et al. conceived the concept of “ Youth Politics as Multiple Processes” ( Coe et al., 2016 , p. 6), which indicates that youth political participation is characterized by very distinct restrictions such as age limits, adults' disinterest in youth-demands, and state-centered definitions of politics. Nygard et al. (2016) focused on variables deriving from “ resource models” to explain different forms of political participation amongst Finnish 9th graders and found higher rates for alternative forms of political participation among this age group, given the right socio-economic resources. Wass (2007) emphasizes this by pointing out that the concepts of family socialization alone lack explanatory power, a point which was already discussed in section 4.

Youth political Participation in Eastern European countries has so far mostly been analyzed comparatively and with a focus on the anticipated effects of previous communist regimes in those countries. Slomczynski and Shabad (1998) argued for the polish case that democratic principles can be successfully taught in school in order to avoid extreme left or right tendencies which could result from a lack of democratic experience. Roberts (2003) partly contradicts these findings, arguing that, amongst other actions, political participation amongst young adults is deeply connected to the social environment as well as structural effects. Research on 10 eastern European countries conducted by Letki (2004) has shown that, in many cases, political participation in eastern European, post-communist countries is very similar to established western democracies. Association membership and established institutions also increase the chances of political participation in post-communist countries. In addition to this, Ådnanes (2004) found that young Bulgarians with a high degree of formal education consider migrating partly because they perceive their ways of participation as restricted and are unsatisfied with their political system, thereby confirming the importance of an established institutional framework. Burean and Badescu (2014) show that similar triggers of participation can be seen at the core of the protest movements against the Romanian government in 2012, where thousands of students took to the streets to protest against their government.

Apart from these countries, some EU-Member states, namely Greece, Spain, and Portugal, have been severely hit by the financial crisis and have also been suffering from a high degree of youth unemployment ( Tosun et al., 2019 ), which appears to go hand in hand with decreasing institutionalized and increasing non-institutionalized forms of political participation among young adults. As a result of this crisis and its severe effects on young adults, the research on southern European countries has, e.g., and beside other forms of political participation ( Sloam, 2014 ), provided valuable insights into youth political participation online. Online participation is genuinely perceived as less costly and therefore more easily accessible even during times of crisis, which is when Pacheco and Plutzer (2008) expect decreasing levels of participation. Espinar-Ruiz and Gonzalez-Rio (2015) as well as Calenda and Meijer (2009) have shown through large-N surveys that there is a significant relation between multiple forms of political participation and time spent on the internet. Theocharis (2011) research on Greece partly contradicts these findings. He argues that while the online realm is more likely to cultivate a post materialist mindset, it is also the case that this mindset seems to go hand in hand with a genuine disinterest in political participation. In addition to research on online participation, the financial crisis has granted remarkable insights into the relation of neoliberal policies and informal youth political participation ( Sotiris, 2010 ; Sakellaropoulos, 2012 ; Zamponi and Gonzalez, 2017 ). This also applies to extremist positions ( Koronaiou et al., 2015 ), showing that neoliberal policies often serve as the initial spark of protest or extremism, even though they do not represent the actual underlying cause.

Much like the research on northern European cases, research in central and Western Europe has significantly contributed to our knowledge of similarities between European nations in the forms of participation and political attitudes. These comparative studies ( Timmerman, 2009 ; Cammaerts et al., 2014 ) show similarities in the participation of Europe's adolescents. Cammaerts et al. (2014) found that insufficient participation in the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Austria, Finland, and Hungary is due to the existing structural nature of the political systems and its discourse as adolescents mainly feel excluded from it. Within her research on municipalities in the UK and the Netherlands, Timmerman (2009) found that neither country offers enough entry points for young adults to contribute or participate in debates or the democratic process in general. Hooghe and Stolle (2003) found that adolescents in Germany, France and the UK are less likely to vote or participate through institutionalized means than adults, though their willingness to participate through non-institutionalized means is proportionally higher. Hooghe et al. (2004) and Quintelier and Hooghe (2011) also find this to be true for the Belgian case.

Previous research thus reveals a wealth of different forms of participation among young adults in Europe. The studies focused on very different areas, from membership in associations or voting behavior to political activism, e.g., in the form of protest. Here, young adults are exposed to different contexts, as, e.g., the case of Eastern Europe with many post-communist countries shows. The results of the studies also show which new spaces young adults use for participation and that participating in “older” spaces or institutionalized forms of participation can be problematic for them.

6. Previously Used Methods to Study Youth Political Participation

In this final step, the focus is on how and with which methods youth political participation has been investigated so far. In the past, some authors addressed one of the central questions—namely how young adults perceive and define politics and political participation—and developed tools for assessing youth definitions of politics. These consisted, e.g., of a three-year qualitative longitudinal study ( Lister et al., 2003 ) and a quantitative survey ( Vromen, 2003 ) of young adults and their perceptions of citizenship or of qualitative focus group studies that examined young adults' understanding of political engagement ( Pontes et al., 2018 ). Researchers also tried to get closer to the “vocabulary” of young adults with regard to political participation ( O'Toole, 2003 ; O'Toole et al., 2003a , b ).

Furthermore, a number of recent research projects have analyzed youth political participation. They mostly used a cross-national comparative design combined with a mixed methods approach to emphasize different focal points. Within the YOUNEX (Youth unemployment and exclusion in Europe, Lorenzini and Giugni, 2012 ) project, e.g., researchers shed light on the consequences of long-term unemployment for youth political participation by both conducting in-depth interviews and original survey data. The EURYKA (Reinventing democracy in Europe: Youth doing politics in times of increasing inequalities, Kousis and Giugni, 2019 ) project, meanwhile, conducted both panel survey analysis and biographical analysis to investigate how inequalities are experienced by young adults and how these conditions can stimulate youth political participation. A third project worth mentioning here is EUYOUPART (Political Participation of Young People in Europe, Spannring et al., 2008 ), which was specifically concerned with the development of comparatively usable indicators that would facilitate the study of youth political participation. Here, three key points were identified that may limit the comparative usability of indicators. These limitations can stem from “ failed or inaccurate translations of central terms used in a question, different opportunity structures in the countries that facilitate or hamper a form of activity or different political cultures that embed an activity in a different institutional context” ( Ogris and Westphal, 2005 ). The importance of such an approach was also shown by later investigations using existing survey datasets. García-Albacete (2014) , e.g., used data from the European Social Survey to show that indicators need to be tested for their usability both across countries and age groups.

When looking at the development of research on the political participation of young adults, the first thing that emerges is a clearly positive trend. Older studies mostly focused on establishing how adolescents are different from their adult counterparts in a descriptive manner. These studies therefore described youth participation behavior ex negativo in almost all designs. This begs the question of whether there is more to adolescents than just being non-adult. More recent studies have shown this to be the case and now hardly use this exclusive approach of comparison between young and old. Nevertheless, three points arise from this and the previous section that have so far received insufficient attention. First, recent studies do not always take into account our existing knowledge on the 'vocabulary' of young adults. At this point, it would also be worth discussing whether the existing knowledge is even sufficient or whether newer and updated studies are needed, since the possible fields of participation are constantly developing. Secondly, there is a lack of large cross-national studies that take several different contexts into account and thus explore how young adults resemble each other in their participation behavior or do not. Third, with few exceptions, the use of existing survey data sets not designed for young adults has so far paid insufficient attention to the suitability of the items used/developed for the study of young adult participation behavior.

7. Conclusion—What is Youth Political Participation?

This review article pursued several goals, among which were to give an overview of the landscape of definitions of the term political participation and to work out the specific features of youth political participation. Furthermore, it aimed to shed light on the state of youth political participation in the European context and the methods previously used to investigate this, in order to be able to identify gaps in the literature and to suggest avenues for further research.

In the first step, it became clear that the decades-long debate on the definition of political participation has produced many small-scale definitions. The (few) broader definitions seem to be more helpful, even when considering that there is no independent definition of youth political participation. Although these recent definitions of political participation are adequate for capturing youth political participation, the current literature is inconsistent in the inclusion of new modes of participation that are increasingly common among younger generations. Resulting from this one major shortcoming is the fact that non-participation has not yet been problematized adequately. Although this issue was addressed a long time ago ( O'Toole, 2003 ), it is still the case that research so far has paid little careful attention to this ( Theocharis and van Deth, 2018b ). This results in the danger of more frequent support of the disengagement thesis, which does not necessarily correspond to the actual participation situation of young adults.

In the second step, this paper sought to answer the question of how youth political participation differs from adult political participation. In general, it was shown that existing differences are interpreted differently by researchers (engagement vs. disengagement thesis). In addition, it also became apparent that the classic research design of comparing young and old, which was mainly used in older studies, is used less frequently in more recent studies. This is due to the existence of differences between what young adults define as “political” and what researchers define and interrogate as such. These definitions can differ not only between young adults and researchers, but also between young adults and adults. Inconsequently, problems can emerge from young adults' varying conceptions of politics and the “political” as well as from their differing awareness to adults of what constitutes a political act. Although some researchers tried to solve this problem by conducting research to get closer to the “vocabulary” used by young adults ( O'Toole, 2003 ; O'Toole et al., 2003a , b ), youth-specific explanations of what being politically engaged really means remain insufficient ( Pontes et al., 2018 ). This results in a clear call for future research: It is necessary to develop further youth-specific explanations and definitions of what political participation means, which new studies should then employ accordingly. This aspect of youth-adequate definitions and measurements must also be considered when using existing datasets.

Another, third major shortcoming is the lack of larger cross-national studies that take into account a youth-adequate definition of political participation and conduct research on the political participation behavior of youths. This certainly results from the absence of a unified theoretical foundation for studying “European” youth political participation. This is unfortunate considering the enormous amount of data available, especially from the EU. In addition, implications for European policy research can only be made on the basis of cross-country consistent studies.

In conclusion, it can be said that the definition of youth political participation is currently nothing more than general political participation. However, the question remains regarding the use of forms of political participation by young adults. Hopefully, this article will trigger other researchers to spend more time on this topic and both to resolve the mismatch between the definition of political participation and the perception of young adults regarding what is “political” and to review existing and upcoming datasets so that they can scrutinize this concept.

Author Contributions

JW conceived and designed the article, wrote the manuscript, revised the manuscript, reread it, and finally approved the submitted version.

This article benefited from financial support by the project Change through Crisis? Solidarity and Desolidarization in Germany and Europe (Solikris; Federal Ministry of Education and Research of Germany), the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Science, Research and Arts and Heidelberg University.

Conflict of Interest

The author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank the reviewers for their helpful suggestions and comments. The author gratefully acknowledges the comments from Jale Tosun and all other members of the project team in Heidelberg. Marcel Katzlinger deserves credit for his research assistance and comments on previous versions of the paper. Finally, the author thanks Laurence Crumbie for language editing.

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Keywords: political participation, political attitudes, youth, overview, literature review

Citation: Weiss J (2020) What Is Youth Political Participation? Literature Review on Youth Political Participation and Political Attitudes. Front. Polit. Sci. 2:1. doi: 10.3389/fpos.2020.00001

Received: 18 February 2020; Accepted: 20 April 2020; Published: 15 May 2020.

Reviewed by:

Copyright © 2020 Weiss. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Julia Weiss, julia.weiss@ipw.uni-heidelberg.de

This article is part of the Research Topic

The Civic and Political Participation of Young People: Current Changes and Educational Consequences

The Real Youth-Vote Shift to Watch

No, young voters aren’t definitively turning toward Trump. But there’s a more specific dynamic to pay attention to.

This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here.

Are young people turning away from the Democratic Party in 2024? Will turnout be as high as it was last time around? What about the gender gap? Today I’ll do my best to address some pressing questions about how young folks will behave in November. But first, here are three stories from The Atlantic :

• The bone-marrow-transplant revolution
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• Abolish DEI statements, Conor Friedersdorf argues.

The “Realignment” Mirage

What are the youths up to this election cycle? several readers asked me via email last week. Well, lately, they’ve been giving Democrats heart palpitations.

A handful of surveys from late last month suggested that Trump is performing better among young voters than he did in 2020—even, in some cases , better than Joe Biden. Some Democrats are worried about what Politico recently called a “massive electoral realignment.” For decades, Democratic candidates have secured younger voters by big margins. In the 2020 presidential election, for example, voters ages 18–29 broke for Biden by more than 20 points . So if young voters were to turn toward Trump, that would be an enormous deal.

But before Democrats freak out or Trump fans get too excited, let’s all take a nice, deep breath. Several other youth-voter polls from last month showed Biden on par with Trump, and even beating him.

“Following recent polls of young voters has been a bit like reading a choose-your-own adventure book,” Daniel Cox, the director of the nonpartisan Survey Center on American Life at the American Enterprise Institute, told me via email, when I asked him what he makes of the surveys that point to a realignment. “You can craft a completely different narrative,” he says, depending on which poll you see.

These surveys vary so much, in part, because polling young people can be tricky. Getting young people on the phone via the traditional cold-call method is a nightmare, because they don’t tend to answer. (I get it: These days it seems like every call is a scam .) Lately, younger voters have been eschewing traditional party labels, and they’ve grown more cynical about the entire political system. These phenomena make it difficult to both identify younger voters by party and to get them to participate in a poll.

It’s unlikely that a total realignment is happening, Cox and other pollsters told me. Let’s not forget which voters we’re dealing with: Young adults today are less religious, more educated, and more likely to identify as LGBTQ than prior generations, Cox noted, which are all characteristics generally associated with left-of-center political views. “It’s hard to see this completely changing over the course of a single campaign.”

A brand-new poll from Harvard throws even more ice-cold water on the “great realignment” theory: Biden leads Trump by 19 points among likely voters under age 30, according to the poll, which was published today and is considered one of the most comprehensive surveys of young voters in the country. Biden is definitely underperforming among young people compared with this point in the 2020 election, when he led by 30 points. But today’s poll showed no hint of a Trump lead.

Instead, the bigger threat to Biden will be third-party-curious young people. In a recent survey of young voters from the nonpartisan polling organization Split Ticket, Biden led Trump by 10 points, and the young voters who did abandon Biden weren’t going to Trump—they were going to independent candidates like RFK Jr.

The real themes to watch in 2024, experts told me, are youth turnout and the growing gender divide.

Young people are less likely to vote than older Americans—that’s true. But the past three national elections have actually had really high young-voter turnout, relative to past cycles. In the 2020 general election, 50 percent of eligible voters under 30 cast a ballot, according to estimates from CIRCLE, a nonpartisan organization that studies youth civic engagement. Will more than 50 percent of eligible young voters show up to the polls again this November? Maybe: About 53 percent of young Americans say they will “definitely be voting,” according to the Harvard poll published today. That’s about the same as it was around this time in 2020, when 54 percent said they’d vote.

But some experts say that matching 2020 levels is a long shot. Biden and Trump are historically unpopular presidential candidates among all age groups. Given that, Lakshya Jain, who helped design the Split Ticket poll, doesn’t think young-voter turnout will be “nearly as high as it was in 2020.” That cycle was special, he says: “a black swan of events” during one of the most tumultuous times in America. The election followed four years of a Trump administration, and the start of a global pandemic. “I see this environment as much more like 2016,” Jain said, when turnout among young people was closer to 40 percent.

The other important trend is gender. More American men than women support Trump—and that gap is growing. Now it seems like the same phenomenon applies to young people. Among likely young women voters, Biden leads Trump by 33 points in the new Harvard poll; among young men, he only leads by six. (In 2020, Biden led young men by 26 points .)

This gender chasm may not actually be reflected in November’s outcome. But that, pollsters say, will be the possible realignment to watch. “It will make the youth vote less Democratic for one,” Cox said. And “a longer-term political gender divide could transform the character of the political parties.”

• Are Gen Z men and women really drifting apart?
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Today’s News

• Twelve jurors were sworn in for Donald Trump’s hush-money criminal trial in New York; the selection of alternate jurors will resume tomorrow.
• A commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said that it is “possible and conceivable” that Iran will reconsider its nuclear policies if Israel attacks Iranian nuclear facilities.
• In a new package of bills dealing with aid to Israel and Ukraine, the U.S. House revived legislation that would force TikTok’s owner to either sell the social-media platform or face a national ban.
• Work in Progress : Supercheap electric cars from China or an American industrial renaissance? Pick one , Rogé Karma writes.
• Time-Travel Thursdays : Helen Keller was funny, smart, and much more complex than many people know, Ellen Cushing writes.

Explore all of our newsletters here.

Evening Read

The Uncomfortable Truth About Child Abuse in Hollywood

By Hannah Giorgis

During Nickelodeon’s golden era, the network captivated young viewers by introducing them to an impressive roster of comedic talent—who happened to be kids, just like them … For nearly two decades, the network dominated not just kids’ programming, but the entire cable-TV landscape. A new docuseries argues that at least some of this success came at a great cost. Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV explores troubling allegations of child abuse and other inappropriate on-set behavior during this run at Nickelodeon. The documentary builds on a 2022 Business Insider investigation into programs led by the prolific producer Dan Schneider, and on details from a memoir published earlier that year by the former child star Jennette McCurdy . (McCurdy, who doesn’t identify Schneider by name in her book but describes an abusive showrunner widely believed to be him, was not involved with the documentary.) Over its five episodes, the series offers an important record of how the adults working on these shows—and Hollywood as a whole—repeatedly failed to protect young actors. But Quiet on Set also, perhaps unintentionally, ends up creating a frustratingly tidy narrative that elides some crucial complexities of abuse.

Read the full article.

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Culture Break

Read. Our Kindred Creatures , by Bill Wasik and Monica Murphy, explores why Americans love certain animals and are indifferent toward many others.

Pace yourself. Scott Jurek ran a 2,189-mile ultramarathon —the full length of the Appalachian Trail, Paul Bisceglio wrote in 2018. What can extreme athletes tell us about human endurance?

Play our daily crossword.

In case you haven’t heard, it’s Pop Girl Spring! And tonight is the big night: Taylor Swift is releasing her new album, The Tortured Poets Department . I’m thrilled, because I love a breakup album, and this one promises to be moody and campy in equal measure. (The track list includes songs called “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived” and “But Daddy I Love Him”!) For a really thoughtful unpacking of the album, I recommend tuning into the Every Single Album podcast from The Ringer , hosted by Nora Princiotti and Nathan Hubbard. They have a preview episode up now, and a new one will be out in a few days.

Even if Taylor isn’t your cup of tea ( gasp! ), their other episodes covering new music from Beyoncé , Maggie Rogers , and Kacey Musgraves are delightful and informative, too.

Stephanie Bai contributed to this newsletter.

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Zócalo Podcasts

Will Young Americans Finally Rock the Vote?

After decades of research, we know how to get new people to the polls. we just don’t always do it.

To get young people to vote in greater numbers, accessibility and peer encouragement are key, writes journalist Jane Eisner. President Joe Biden with young voters. Courtesy of AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File .

by Jane Eisner | April 18, 2024

Twenty years ago, I published Taking Back the Vote: Getting American Youth Involved in Our Democracy . The book grew out of a personal passion: Once my oldest child was able to cast a ballot, I became fascinated with the potential and obstacles facing our youngest voters.

I delved into the lengthy and messy midcentury struggle to pass the 26th Amendment, extending the franchise to 18-year-olds. The first bill to lower the voting age was introduced in Congress during World War II—why should young people be old enough to be drafted but not old enough to vote? It had to be introduced 10 more times before it finally was enacted, in 1971.

The bill’s proponents expected the hard-won victory to bring a surge in youth civic participation. Historically, when disenfranchised groups such as women and Black people got the right to vote, participation levels increased. But the 55.4% turnout in the 1972 presidential race remains the highest ever achieved for voters age 18 to 29.

In my book, I identified several causes and short-term solutions, including ending gerrymandering districts (which disincentivizes voting), strengthening civic education, and making registering and voting processes easier. But I noted that enduring solutions would require voting to become a habit—a civic ritual, embedded in the American ethos. Every young person’s first vote should be a communal celebration, I wrote. If we memorialize proms and graduations, why not this rite of civic passage?

We’ve seen cataclysmic changes to the nation’s politics and civic behavior in the years since. Campaigns have moved online, and social media and misinformation have transformed the voting ecosystem. The youth electorate is far more diverse, and the nation far more polarized.

Still, the central message—now borne out by decades’ more research, analysis, and experience—has not changed. Accessibility and peer encouragement drive younger Americans to vote. A galvanizing candidate (Barack Obama, especially in 2008) or a hot-button issue (abortion in 2022) might help. But it is having the opportunity to vote that seems most impactful—and that varies greatly state by state, thanks to the U.S.’s highly decentralized election system. To get more young people to vote and make it a habit, we must dismantle barriers and disincentives.

Positive trends over the last two decades show the way.

The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, known as CIRCLE , is a nonpartisan, independent research organization based at Tufts University. CIRCLE has compiled youth turnout rates for midterm and presidential election years since 2014. When the group looked at midterm data , all but one of the 40 states tracked had higher turnout in 2022 than in 2014, though the path wasn’t all positive. In 2014, only 13% of 18- to 29-year-old voters went to the polls; turnout climbed to 28.2% in 2018, then slipped to 23% in 2022.

The uptick over the two presidential campaigns CIRCLE followed was more dramatic: 39% in 2016, 50% in 2020. But there were discrepancies among states. The lowest 2016 youth turnout rate, in Texas, was 28%; the highest, in Minnesota, was 57%. The gap between lowest (32% in South Dakota) and highest (67% in New Jersey) only widened in 2020.

Why? CIRCLE’s analyses suggest that election laws may play a central role. Consider: First-time voters must register, while established voters don’t have to. If potential voters move from jurisdiction to jurisdiction—and many young people are very mobile—they must register again.

States with easier, more inviting registration policies often have higher youth voter turnout. CIRCLE found that turnout over the years studied was 9% higher in counties that allow young people to preregister to vote before they turn 18. In 2020, youth voter registration was 10% higher in states with online voter registration.

Conversely, in many states with onerous registration requirements, young people simply don’t vote. Tennessee, Alabama, and Oklahoma do not have same-day, automatic, or pre-registration, and their youth voting rates in the 2022 midterm were abysmal—13% in Tennessee, and not much higher in the other states.

Voting rules vary dramatically across America. Many states loosened rules during the COVID pandemic allowing voting at home, and easier absentee balloting. Some never turned back. Eight states automatically sent mail-in ballots to all registered voters in 2022, and many of these boasted high youth turnout as a result. Data from the National Vote at Home Institute indicates that states with the most generous policies in 2022 had youth voter turnout at or above the national average. States with the most restrictive policies fell far below that average.

Another trend expressly targets younger voters—the growing number of states which require voter identification but won’t accept student ID cards. Permits to carry concealed weapons are often acceptable. Proof of attendance, even at a public university, is not.

This particularly rankles, because college campuses are easy and effective targets for mobilization. In a 2006 study , Elizabeth Bennion of Indiana University and David Nickerson of Temple University found that classroom-based registration drives increased registration by 6%, and voting by 2.6%. Face-to-face presentations worked. Remote outreach such as email, the researchers found, did not.

“The most effective way to mobilize new voters is to catch their attention and to personalize the invitation,” Bennion and colleague Melissa Michelson of Menlo College wrote last year, asserting that voting “is strongly shaped by one’s social environment.”

One might think that more and better civic education would enhance that social environment—I certainly thought so when I wrote my book—but research since then suggests that the results are mixed at best. Knowledge does not necessarily promote action.

Even the most creative and intensive voter mobilization efforts do not confront the underlying structural reasons why so many Americans, especially so many younger Americans, find no purchase in voting. Elections have become increasingly non-competitive in the last 20 years, often decided by a sliver of primary voters who represent the extremes and alienate the rest of us. The Electoral College sweepstakes anoints a few states as essential, and the others as throwaways. Even the fact that Election Day is not a federal holiday suppresses turnout. (Here’s an easy fix: Combine it with Veterans Day. What better way to celebrate freedom?)

The upswing of youth voting over the last few electoral cycles is a hopeful sign. Continuing the trend demands persistence, passion, and patience. The strategies to encourage more young people to vote are sensible, well-documented, and well-known. But 20 years on, I remain haunted: Do we, as a nation, genuinely want to welcome new voters?

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Youth Engagement in Politics

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This research explains that it is very important to bring youth into politic. We usually hear that youth is the nation's next generation, on the shoulders the future of this nation is at stake. Judging from the behavior, the behavior of young people now has begun to appear apathetic, meaning that the behavior does not care about a socialization of society, even though it is very necessary to continue the life of today's society, Youth seem to act at will, meaning that it doesn't matter what is happening and doesn't hear much what people say as long as he thinks it's good to keep on doing it. but with the right direction and guidance, the youth will be extraordinary. Various strengths, idealism and passionate enthusiasm are significant assets to carry out this task. like a sentence once said by President Soekarno "Give me 1000 parents, surely I will pluck the roots of Semeru. Give me 10 young men I will undoubtedly shake the world.". these words reflect how youth have an important role as agents of change.

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Role Of Youth In Politics (Essay Sample)

Role of youth in politics.

Our world is in the crucial time wherein people are called upon to be involved and act on the chaotic forces at hand which is why the youth plays a very big role, especially in the political field. Politics is one of the key elements that is essential in influencing and shaping the world as it is the governing factor that has decisional and executive powers. In our modern times, there is an undeniable growth of the interest of the youth towards politics. Political groups are encouraged to adapt to the ever-growing influence of the youth in terms of voting power and the inherent capacity to spawn new leaders who have the best interest of the people and the growth of the community.

Political ideologies are now changed and updated in order to be more appalling to the youth as they are now an immutable voice of the majority of the population. The youth are the ones who have the greatest power in changing the arena of the social environment for it is up to them to inherit the will of their ancestors while also focusing on the parts that will better the course of humanity’s expansion in terms of number and consciousness. A great number of the population, which are the young people, are actually becoming more engaged in local community campaigns and other political activities. The youth can change the world through politics by actively pursuing it through their expression and by giving meaning to the dynamics of their cause. They can influence the world through politics by being substantially and consciously present in their everyday lives in areas that involve not only political parties but beyond.

More and more ideas are generated by the youth and they are responsible in choosing which cultural beliefs are going to work for the benefit of humanity and which of those belief systems are detrimental. Especially now in the age of information, knowledge has always played a big role in the course of human history as it is a key factor that influences the political arena. However, the internet and the mass media are not the only avenues for the youth to express their opinions that involve politics. More and more members of the youth are becoming hardcore advocates for the causes and acts that they deem necessary for the world’s healing and progress. By collectively assuming responsibility, the youth can be the catalyst of the change they want to achieve. One way is “youth mainstreaming” wherein the popular beliefs and culture of the collective is dependent upon the popular culture that are in the mainstream. Through this, advocating different topics become an avenue for the entire population to gain new awareness and opportunities that would make the world a better place.

The political powers in the world can create new policies, systems, and cultures that will make the youth engage the political world in an active manner. Noticeable leaders that are from the young population occasionally arise and they put the world in awe and wonder with their charisma, skill, knowledge, and dedication that resonate with their cause. The youth can run for office and be the ones directly in charge for the rules, regulations, and policies that will be beneficial for the society. The youth has the most power in regards to educating, empowering, and voting for the change that they want the world to see.