Are young people today more individualist in their ways of political participation than in the seventies? * Gema García Albacete Universidad de Mannheim ggarciaa@mail.uni-mannheim.de Irene Martín Cortés Universidad Autónoma de Madrid irene.martin@uam.es Keywords: political behaviour, youth, generations, life-cycle Gema García Albacete is a PhD candidate at the University of Mannheim,. She is enrolled in the Center for Doctoral Studies in Social and Behavioral Sciences funded by the excellence initiative of the German Science Foundation. Her dissertation analyzes political participation of young people today in comparison to former generations in Europe. Her research interests include political behavior, public opinion and research methods in the social sciences. Irene Martín Cortés is lecturer at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. She is PhD in Political Science by the University Autónoma de Madrid and doctor member of the Institute Juan March. Her main research interest at present are youth political culture and citizenship education, as well as political culture in the South of Europe, and particularly, in Spain and Greece. She has published articles and contributions in edited volumes on comparative political culture, youth political behaviour, and political parties use of new information and communication technologies. 1
Presentado en el IX Congreso de la AECPA - Málaga, 23-25 de septiembre de 2009 GT 4.2: Comportamiento político y edad Coordinadores: Araceli Mateos y Guillem Rico * Una versión previa de este trabajo fue presentada en el Workshop Professionalization and Individualized Collective Action. Analyzing New Participatory Dimensions in Civil Society de las ECPR Joint Sessions celebradas en Lisboa 14-19 de Abril, 2009. 2
Introduction Several changes have been identified in citizens political involvement. Among other ongoing phenomena, it has been suggested that new life styles are resulting in an increasing attraction for individualized forms of participation". This change would be particularly noticeable among the younger generations. Our paper focuses on today s young people in comparison to young people in previous times. We want to identify which are the differences in political participation between young people today and young people in the seventies, the eighties and the nineties. Is it true that today s young are turning into episodic democratic monitors to a greater extent than young people in previous times and, therefore, that they are distancing themselves from the kind of more or less stable political participation linked to traditional political organizations? Our work aims at synthesizing existing thinking on the ways into which young people participate in politics nowadays and at putting it to test for the first time through wide and systematic cross-time and cross-section comparison. We analyze to what extent collective forms of participation such as voting, participation in traditional political associations and, maybe, participation in political demonstrations, are less chosen by today s young people. Also, we will put to test the idea that today s young people may be using to a greater extent individualized forms of participation such as signing petitions and political consumerism. Furthermore, after analyzing whether there is a generalized trend in young people s ways of political participation that extends to several countries, we want to explore which are the causes that lie behind this phenomenon, wherever it exists. Is it a temporary phenomenon linked to a longer transition to adulthood of young people nowadays, or is it related to a brand new lifestyle? The reminder of this paper is divided in six sections. First, we briefly summarize the state of the art on young people and political participation. In the light of this summary, we pose our questions and their relevance. Then, we briefly introduce the data we use, the way the variables are operationalized and the kind of analyses we carry out. Thirdly, we map in a descriptive way the different levels of activity of the diverse age groups (both within the wider group of the young and between young and adults). This allows us to define the age groups for further analyses. In a fourth section we compare political participation between today s young people and their equivalent in the seventies and eighties. Next, the results of multivariate analyses are 3
shown in which we identify to what extent these differences are due to the life cycle stage in which they are. We control the impact of this explanation by including sociodemographic characteristics, the level of resources, of political involvement, their political ideology and the evaluation of government performance. These analyses are replicated both with data from the seventies (Political Action study) and with data from the (European Social Survey) in order to see if the reasons that explain young people s participation today are the same that could explain them during the seventies. Finally, we will draw some conclusions from all of the above. State of the art During the last years several political institutions and researchers have drawn our attention to the fact that citizens are feeling more and more distant from democratic institutions and from the democratic institutional forms of participation, as well as less and less supportive of these institutions. Several authors have shown that critical attitudes towards politics, electoral abstention, and political disaffection towards traditional politics are growing (Pharr & Putnam, 2000; Blais, Gidengil, & Nevitte, 2004; Dalton, 2004). Some authors have said that also participation in associations is shrinking (Putnam, 2000). 1 According to some of the literature these changes seem to be especially acute amongst young people. That young people s ways to participate in politics are different to those of adults is nothing new. Several classic studies on political participation have already pointed out that conventional political participation linked to political parties is more popular in the oldest or, at least, in the middle-aged groups around 50 or 60 years old. They also were aware that young people s potential of protest was higher than in other age groups (Milbrath & Goel, 1977; Jennings & van Deth, 1989; Kaase, 1989; Parry, Moiser, & Day, 1992). Therefore, the interesting question here is not whether young people participate in politics in a different way than older people but whether today s young people participate in different forms or levels than young people from previous generations. Several studies on the relationship between young people and politics have been 1 For an overview of the state of the art see Stolle and Hooghe (2005). As these authors state, there is still no consensus in the literature on whether these phenomena mean a gradual disappearance of civic duty or whether we are just witnessing different forms of it. Nor is it clear whether its consequences are positive or negative. 4
carried out in the United States, United Kingdom and Canada. 2 Their initial conclusions were that today s young people are more distrustful towards others and towards government, are less interested in politics and public affairs, know less about political institutions, pay less attention to the news with political content, and are less willing to participate, whether in elections or in other forms (Bennett, 1997; Pirie & Worcester, 1998; Delli Carpini, 2000; Pirie & Worcester, 2000; Blais, Gidengil, & Nevitte, 2004). However, these conclusions have become more nuanced with time. For example, today s young people in several Western democracies seem to vote less than previous generations (IDEA, 1999; Blais, Gidengil, & Nevitte, 2004; Saha, Print, & Edwards, 2005). They also seem to participate less in activities related to party politics such as becoming member of a party or trade union, participating during the electoral campaign or contacting politicians (Dalton & Wattenberg, 2000; EUYOUPART, 2005; Henn, Weinstein, & Forrest, 2005). But, on the other hand part of the literature shows that they are becoming more active in alternative forms which have to do with sporadic actions, such as acts of protest (Micheletti, Follesdal, & Stolle, 2004; Ferrer, 2005; Ferrer, Medina, & Torcal, 2006). Besides, these forms have become more varied including, among others, political consumption and protest using new technologies (Micheletti, Follesdal, & Stolle, 2004; Stolle & Micheletti, 2005). Simultaneously, they are increasingly participating in social movements and associations that seem to better fit their interests, and that seem to have more flexible forms of organization (Inglehart, 1990; Gauthier, 2003). However, two important questions remain unanswered: a) Are these phenomena common to most countries in Europe or just to some of them? If young people today are different than young people of previous times, b) Will they stay different after they are young, or are their differences related to a specific period of the life cycle? This last question has to do with where the causes lie for this change in the forms of participation. It could be related to the different social context in which young people have to grow up today. To the extent that today people enter the labour market later than in previous times, and marry and have children at an older age (if they do at all) 3, their perception of the way in which politics has an influence in their lives could 2 On the case of the United States see, inter alia, Bennett (1997), Schlozman et al. (1999), Delli Carpini, (2000), Zukin et al (2006) and Wattemberg (2007). About Canada see Gauthier (2003) and Blais, Gidengil, and Nevitte (2004). About the United Kingdom see Pirie and Worcester (1998;, 2000) as well as Henn, Weinstein and Forrest (2005). There is a recent monographic study on Scandinavian Political Studies (2007). 3 In Europe, the average age at which women have children was 24,7 years old in 1977 and 28 years old 5
be totally different than that of young people in previous decades. In other words, it would take them more time to realize the relevance of politics in their lives. According to this, it would not be surprising to find that young people today vote less and are less involved in the activities of traditional political organizations. In this case, their involvement with these kinds of participation could be just postponed for a few years but, in the end, they would not be that different to young people in previous times. To the extent that the level of education of today s youth is higher than that of previous generations, according to Inglehart s thesis (1990) we could expect their level of cognitive mobilization to be greater. This could mean that both their participation in acts of protest and in activities organized by political associations of the new type would also be greater. However, the individualization of the styles of life would have withdrawn young people from collective acts of protest and would have fostered other more individualistic kinds of acts more compatible with the new ways of living (Bennett, 1998). One such form of participation that is expected to increase in popularity is political consumerism (Micheletti, Follesdal, & Stolle, 2004), but also others such as signing petitions. If it is true that young people are adopting more individualistic values, we could expect that the peculiarities of their relationship with politics will perpetuate themselves into the future. According to this last expectation, there is a third question that we would like to address c) Are young people today using individualistic forms of participation to a greater extent than in the past? All in all, four are the reasons why we think the relationship between young people and politics deserves more attention than it has received until now. In the first place, as far as we know, there are surprisingly few comparative studies including a relatively big number of countries. Secondly, some of the works that do exist have concentrated on the study of young people, without comparing them to other groups of the population. This does not allow us to know whether young people are really peculiar or not. A third reason is that, when several countries and age groups are compared, the analyses have focused on just one form of participation. Finally, there is not much discussion in the literature about whether there are different patterns of political participation amongst different groups of young people. For example, it is not strange to find that the group of young people is defined by those between 18 and 30, without any further distinction amongst them. However, it seems reasonable to expect different patterns of participation within the range of age. in 2000 and the average age at which they marry for the first time is 23 and 26,6 years old respectively (Euromonitor International, 2007). 6
Data and operationalization of variables In the following pages we will try to overcome these problems by using data from relatively distant points in time such as the first wave of the Political Action study (PA) carried out between 1973 and 1976, the Eurobarometer 30 carried out in 1988 and the first wave of the European Social Survey (ESS), carried out in 2002 and 2003. This choice allows us to include in our analyses six consolidated democracies: Austria,,, United Kingdom, Italy and The Netherlands. 4 Given the difficulties to find comparable data across time, the World Value Survey will be used to test the robustness of the findings. All these surveys included both young people and adults and, therefore, we are able to identify whether there are differences between them. Also, they allow us to see which are the forms of participation most affected by changes. We compare up to five different forms of participation: vote 5, participation in political parties, in demonstrations, signing of petitions and political consumerism. This way, we can see what happens when the costs of participation vary (i.e. from vote to political party membership); when we switch our attention from more conventional (vote and participation in political parties) to less conventional forms (demonstrations, petitions and boycotts); and when we examine different forms of protest, being some of them more collectivistic in nature, while others are more individualistic (demonstrations vs. signing petitions or participating in boycotts). In order to answer the first of our questions we compare the evolution of participation in each of these forms in the different age groups and we reach a conclusion about whether there really is a trend that we can generalize to an important number of countries. Then, we design a multivariate model that allows us to see to what extent it is a change in the timing of the life cycle i.e. a longer transition to adulthood or wider differences in the lifestyle that can help us understand the changes we observe. But, before going into more detailed analyses, let us first define who we refer to by young. 4 We have not included the case of Switzerland because it has too few cases (Westholm & Niemi, 1992) and because in the European Social Survey there were no questions on belonging and participation in different kinds of associations. 5 In order to include only those respondents that were eligible to vote, we have checked the date of the last general elections celebrated in each country, the approximate age of each respondent when the elections were held and the legal voting age in each country and point in time. 7
Different forms of participation at different ages in the new millennium Who do we consider young? Should we expect the same from young people regardless of their age? There is no consensus about when one stops being a child and starts being a youth, and the same happens when it comes to determine when one stops being young and starts being an adult. The General Assembly of the United Nations, with the occasion of the International Year of Youth in 1985, defined it as the cohort between 15 and 24 years old, although it was admitted that this definition fits better some countries than others. An additional difficulty when comparing young people at different points in time is that youth is a dynamic concept that has gradually expanded over an increasing number of years of the life cycle. This is the reason why different studies have used different criteria that range from 24 to 34 years old. 6 When it comes to subdividing young people in different groups, most of the experts in political socialization identify a crucial moment the so called impressionable years at some point during late adolescence or early adulthood that justifies separate analyses of those who have not reached that point yet, and those who have (Sears, 1983). 7 Others further specify that, when studying political participation, this crucial period has to do with the moment when one acquires the right to vote, which would have an effect on other political attitudes and behaviours (Percheron, 1993; Bendit, 2000; Franklin, 2004). Therefore, there are reasons to think that changes in these happen around the age of 18. 8 Previous analyses (not shown here) based on the first wave of the ESS indicate that the two older groups of young people behave in a more similar way than the group of those between 15 and 17, regardless of whether we focus on electoral participation or on other forms of participation. These findings corroborate the idea that political participation changes around the age of 18, which is the age when people acquire the right to vote in most countries. Unfortunately, the sample of PA study did not include individuals younger than 18. That is why we will 6 Eurobarometers define as young those between 15 and 24 (2000) or between 15 and 30 (see, for example, Eurobarometer 2007). Caínzos (2006) defines young people as those between 18 and 25. Schlozman et al (1999) those between 18 and 29 years old. Parry, Moiser and Day (1992) refer to this last group as young adults. Jennings and Stoker analyze those between 18 and 35 (2000). 7 This is, more or less, the period between 16 and 23 years old, although some authors consider an earlier period. 8 In most of the countries included in this analysis, in 2002 the right to vote was acquired at the age of 18. 8
only include in our analyses young people from the age of 18 on and our conclusions will only apply to them 9. But, as we have mentioned, also beyond 18 important enough changes could happen in one s political socialization. For example, a recent comparative study on young people s participation in demonstrations shows that this is clearly greater amongst those who are between 18 and 25 than amongst those who are between 26 and 30 years old (Caínzos, 2006). In fact, it is quite common to find studies in which young people are divided into two groups: younger and older than, approximately, 25 years old. 10 Just like reaching the voting age could have an impact on political participation, finishing one s studies, entering the labour market, getting married or having children could also have an effect on it. 11 As can be seen in Table 1, in almost every country young people between 26 and 35 years old vote to a greater extent than those between 18 and 25 years old, even if the differences between the two groups vary from country to country. Political consumerism buying a product for ethical, political or environmental reasons and signing petitions amongst the young also increases with age amongst the young. These findings justify the separate analysis of the two groups of young people we have identified. [Figure 1] Can we justify the consideration of those between 26 and 35 as young people? Let us 9 Previous analyses not shown here based on the first wave of the ESS indicate that in most countries the youngest, those between 15 and 17 years old, are less prone to participate in traditional political associations but more prone than any other group of young people to participate in civic associations (sports clubs or clubs for outdoor activities; organizations for cultural or hobby activities; religious or church associations; social clubs or clubs, women or friendly societies; or other voluntary organization of similar characteristics). This trend, which has been pointed out by part of the literature, is indeed confirmed. However, attending demonstrations does not relate in the same way to age in all countries. The same is the case for participation in associations concerned with humanitarian aid, human rights, social minorities, immigrants, ecologists, pacifists and animal protection. 10 Jennings and Stoker, referring to the impressionable years during which political attitudes are formed, call the period between 18 and 26 years old as the transition stage, and the one between 26 and 35, as the formative stage (2000). The first of these stages is characterized by a much greater instability while during the second, a consolidation of the attitudes acquired during the first takes place. 11 Although this distinction can vary according to the social reality of different countries, in this study the variation between them is limited since all of them are European, Western, relatively rich and highly industrialized countries. 9
see now what distinguishes the patterns of participation of these two groups from those of adults in recent years. For this purpose, we have divided the group of adults into two groups: one formed by those middle-aged - between 36 and 65 and another formed by those above 65 years old. 12 In Table 1 we can observe that both groups of young people vote less and participate less in political parties than adults. However, they attend demonstrations more often than the elder group. Are there any systematic differences as well regarding political consumerism and signing petitions? The trend in political consumerism shows that there are differences between the two groups of young people: only to those between 26 and 35 years old participate in this form more often than adults. Regarding signing of petitions, there is no trend common to a majority of the countries. In sum, it is the systematic differences between the two groups of young people and adults regarding voting, political party membership and participation in demonstrations that justify the consideration of both groups as belonging to the broader category of the young, at least in what refers to political participation. [Table 1] Young people s participation today, in the seventies and in the eighties The above results do not tell us anything about whether these are specificities of today s young people that is, of those socialized politically at the beginning of the third millennium or if they have been shared by young people of previous times. In order to find this out, we will compare the current distribution of the levels of participation amongst the different age groups with their equivalent in the seventies and the eighties. As we have already mentioned, some of the changes in society observed during the last two decades would lead us to expect different patterns of participation between today s youth and that of the seventies and the eighties. In order to test these expectations, we have looked for data sets that allowed fulfilling several objectives: compare the evolution of as many different forms of participation as possible, in the four age groups we are analyzing, in as many countries as possible and across the longest time period possible. After balancing the pros and cons of different options, we 12 Before doing this we have looked at the dispersion of the data along the different ages in order to identify at which age, more or less, patterns of participation amongst adults start to change. This curvilinear form is coherent with the mid-life stability model of consolidation of political attitudes (Jennings & Stoker, 2000). 10
ended up choosing two comparative surveys to evaluate the extent to which young people today may be acting different than young people in previous times: the data set Political Action (1973-76) and the first wave of the European Social Survey (2002-2003). This way we can evaluate the changes occurred in this time span of about three decades. As a result of this choice our analyses at this point include a group of six relatively stable European democracies (Austria,,, Netherlands, Italy and the United Kingdom) and five forms of participation: vote, attending demonstrations, signing of petitions, belonging to political parties and joining boycotts. In spite of our efforts to find two comparable data sets that would comply with all of the above criteria, we encountered one insurmountable problem: the wording of the questions is not identical in both surveys 13. This made it senseless to compare percentages across time. The solution we came up with was to compare, instead, the ratios of participation between young people and adults. In other words, with this measure we want to see if young people and adults gain or shorten distances with each other in their ways of political participation across time. Since the findings could be due to changes in either age group, we will later complement these analyses with additional ones in order to see which has been the direction of the changes in each group. When observing Figure 1 it becomes evident that, in general, young people between 18 and 25 do not vote less than adults now than they used to in the seventies. What it is new, is the lower participation of young people between 26 and 35 years. Even more visible is the tendency regarding participation in political parties: young people today become less often members of political parties than they used to. This is again especially noticeable in the case of those between 26 and 35 years old. In the seventies this group showed, in general, a quite similar pattern of belonging to political parties as the group between 36 and 65 but in 2002-2003 their levels are below to those of the next group in all countries analyzed. In what regards attendance to demonstrations there have been changes between the seventies and today. Although younger citizens still participate more in this type of protest activity in most countries, in four out of six countries, this was true to a higher extent in the seventies. Finally, a 13 See annex. This affects the question about participation in demonstrations and signing petitions. The European Social Survey asked about acts in which they had participated during the previous twelve months, while the Political Action survey referred to acts carried out during the previous ten years. This last wording would probably lead us to find much lower levels (percentages) of participation amongst the young when compared to adults in the PA than in the ESS. 11
similar pattern is observed regarding signing petitions and boycotts. Compared to the seventies, younger citizens participation is lower nowadays, the only exception being. As we have mentioned before, ratios could increase or diminish as a consequence of variations in the percentage of either adults or young people who opt for a specific form of participation. That is why we have decided to find additional information - as well as additional support - for these findings comparing the evolution of percentages in the different groups by looking at other datasets. In this case our priority was to find data bases on the exactly same wording. [Figures in Annex, A2, A3, A4 and A5] In the case of voting the wording of the question in PA and ESS is comparable. Following the same criterion we have also added a third point in time in between the two, 1988, which is made possible by data coming from Eurobarometer number 30. The graphs indicate that in every single country, at every single point in time, young people vote less than adults (Figure A1 in Annex). However, this does not mean that they are voting less now than before, or that their ways of participating in politics are growing increasingly apart from those of the adults. We see a decline in the propensity to vote of both young people and adults in five of the six countries. Therefore, we could say that what we find in 2002 is a period effect that affects all age groups. However, it is true that, in three countries those between 26 to 35 years old are voting comparatively less often with respect to the group of adults than in previous times 14. Therefore, the results of our analyses based on the ratios are confirmed: younger citizens turnout is lower to that of adults, as it was in the seventies, what is new is the lower participation of those between 26 and 35 years old. As an additional test of the trends in other kinds of participation (attending demonstrations, signing petitions and boycotting) we have analyzed the evolution of their use by the different age groups according to the results of the World Value Survey in four of the countries previously analyzed: Italy, Netherlands, UK and. The evolution of the levels of participation of each age group corroborates former findings. While younger citizens were the protagonist in this type of protest activities in the seventies and even at the beginning of the nineties, they are not anymore. Particularly observable is the decrease of participation of the group between 14 This is the case with respect to the seventies in four democracies. 12
26 and 35 years old in 1999. The only exception being their higher participation in signing petitions and boycotts in Italy (Figures A2, A3 and A5 in Annex). In sum, we have now a clearer picture of younger citizens political involvement. On one hand, our results corroborate their lower political involvement in electoral and political parties activities in a number of countries. Furthermore, we have identified a major change in comparison to the seventies and eighties: young adults, those between 26 and 35 years old, participate less now that they used to do. Prospects do not look brighter when it comes to involvement in other types of activities. Although it has been said that younger citizens are changing their modes of involvement opting for more individualistic political activities, we do not see the expected higher involvement in activities such as signing petitions or political consumerism. Neither are they more involved in protest modes such as demonstrations. Where there is a change... where does it come from? So far we have concentrated on bivariate relationships between age and different forms of political participation. We have found support for the existence of one clear trend indicating that young people today behave differently than in previous times: young people are less prone to get engaged in politics. This is especially true for young adults. At this point, we want to know if the reasons that make their pattern of political participation different are the same today than in the seventies. For this purpose we have designed a logistic regression multivariate model where our dependent variables will be the same five forms of political participation that we have analysed so far: electoral turnout, membership in political parties, participation in demonstrations, signing petitions, and participating in boycotts. The strategy we follow is similar to the one used by Schlozman et al. (1999). It consists in the step-wise introduction of, first, age and then aspects that characterize different stages of the life cycle 15. The two blocks of variables included in each of the two steps are the following: 15 In a previous version we have carried out the same analyses introducing other controlling variables such as gender, level of education, attitudes of political involvement, ideology and the level of satisfaction with the government. Since the results do not vary substantially, we have chosen to show simpler models to convey the same idea (Garcíaa-Albacete & Martín, 2009). The results of those analyses are available from the authors. 13
1. Age (Step 1): In this first step we will see the effect of age on the five types of participation both in the seventies and the beginning of the. We will focus on the sign and statistical significance of the coefficients of the two groups of young people (from 18 to 25 and from 26 to 35 years old) in comparison to those in the intermediate age group (36 to 65 years old). Life-cycle (Step 2). The variables included in this group aim to identify the impact of two specific aspects of the life-cycle: being a student (vs. working or looking for a job 16 ) and being married or not 17. We are aware of the fact that through this variable we could also be measuring economic resources or time. If we find differences between those who are studying, on the one hand, and those who are working, or unemployed or retired, on the other, we will conclude it is an effect of the life-cycle in which they are. However, if the result differs between those who work and those who do not work, we can interpret it as the result of higher economic resources and social networks of the former, or the lower or the higher amount of free time of the latter 18. If we find that, after including in the model the variables accounting for the life cycle, the effect of age disappears, we can then discard the existence of generational differences that make today s young people different to the young people of different generations. In this case what we should expect is that young people will participate more as they will complete their student years, they will marry and enter the labour market. On the contrary, if after controlling for the life cycle age keeps being important to explain certain forms of political participation, we will have to conclude that there is something peculiar to these new generations that makes them different 16 The category not working includes both those that are unemployed (have a working age and are looking for a job) 17 Although a preliminary version of the analysis presented in the following sections included also the variable having children or not, unfortunately in the final version it had to be excluded. The reason is the unavailability of this indicator in most of the countries included in the Political Action Study. Nevertheless, the preliminary analysis showed that this variable is not significant to explain political involvement for none of the forms of participation, countries and points in time. 18 Before designing the final model we have confirmed that there is no excessively high correlation among the independent variables as to affect the estimation of the coefficients, and we have excluded those variables that did cause problems in this respect. As will be seen in the tables presenting the results of our analyses, some problems to run the complete model were found in the PA data for electoral turnout and traditional political associations in Great Britain, for political parties and unions in and in the ESS for demonstrations in Portugal due to the low number of cases finally available for some explanatory factors. 14
to previous ones when it comes to political participation. Whether it is a phenomenon of individualization or not is something that these analyses will not be able to tell us. We will look for general tendencies. Any reader interested in a specific country can find more details in the corresponding tables. Summing up, the questions we want to answer in the following lines are the following: 1) Is age a significant and important factor for each of the kinds of political participation nowadays, when compared to the seventies? 2) Is the effect of age related to the life cycle? 3) Is this relationship stronger or weaker than in the seventies? Voting Diverse studies have found evidence that, together with a strong life-cycle effect, there exist relevant generational differences in electoral participation in the United States and Canada (Schlozman, Verba, Brady, & Erkulwater, 1999, p. 26; Blais, Gidengil, & Nevitte, 2004, p. 234). Nevertheless we still do not know if the same trend exists in Europe (Blais, Gidengil, & Nevitte, 2004, p. 234). As we already saw in the descriptive analyses, being young clearly, in the case of those between 18 and 25 years old - diminishes de probability of voting (Figure 1). The results of Model 1 confirm these findings (Table 2). In every single country, both in the seventies and the beginning of the, those between 18 and 25 years old have a lower tendency to vote. But the same model confirms that those between 26 and 35 years old also vote less than the older citizens. What is more interesting, this difference has grown when compared to the seventies. Therefore, in this case, we can clearly say in line with most of the literature that something is going on with this cohort. Could this have to do with the different pace of the life cycle? In other words, could it be due to the fact that this generation is taking longer than previous ones to enter the labour market and to form a family? The results of Model 2 show that the lower inclination to vote in any of the two groups of young people is independent of any of the life cycle, as we have operationalized it. The proof is that, after including of the life cycle variables in the model, all the coefficients of the variable age remain almost as strong as before (Table 2). This does not mean that some aspects of the life cycle are 15
related to the probability of voting. For example, in some countries, in both periods of time, having a partner increases this probability. But we cannot say that those who are between 25 and 36 years old today are less inclined to vote because their life cycle is different than that of previous generations. It looks more like a cohort effect than like a life cycle effect. Belonging to a political party We come to the other form of party-related participation party membership - where according to the bivariate analyses there are clear differences between today s and yesterday s young people. Multivariate models seem to confirm the trend, already seen in the descriptive analyses, of a growing distance between young people and traditional political organizations (Table 9). The coefficients of the age variable are significant and negative in several cases. In the case of 18 to 25 year olds, this difference is mainly explained by other variables in the model and mainly by the life cycle (Table 4). The concrete variable that makes this variable turn not significant is to be working (vs. being a student). Therefore, we can expect young people to belong increasingly to this kind of organizations as they enter the labour market. However, in a few countries young people below 36 might have generational characteristics that explain why they do not join this type of political organizations. Attending demonstrations Young people are said to participate more in demonstrations than other sectors of the population. We already saw in the descriptive analyses that this was not the case in every country. What comes out of our multivariate model? In those countries where there is a significant effect, the direction is always the same: young people in both groups tend to participate more in these acts than older citizens (Table 4). But, just like we saw in Figure 1, we see that the relationship between age and participating in demonstrations depends on both the country and the moment and that no general trends or tendencies over time are clear. But, what is the most relevant finding in the case of demonstrations is the clear impact of the life cycle in those cases where age matters for the group of those between 18 and 25 years old. The impact of age disappears when we take into account the impact of being a student. In other cases, even if age keeps being a relevant variable, students seem to be more inclined than the rest of the population to participate in demonstrations, no matter the country of the period of time. Therefore, we cannot 16
expect participation in this type of activity to increase by means of generational replacement, since we can expect students to stop participating as they incorporate into adult life or, at least, into the labour market. Signing petitions Our expectations regarding the factors that explain participation in this form refer directly to the hypothesis on individualization. Supposedly, this is one of the kinds of participation to which the increasingly individualistic new generation would be attracted to. We saw in the descriptive analyses that this could be the case in a few specific countries, but that it was not at all a general trend. Multivariate analyses seem to confirm this aspect: age is not significant in almost any country when trying to identify which are the factors behind this kind of participation (Table 5). Even more, the sign of the few coefficients of age that are significant varies depending on the case. The only clear trend regarding the relationship between age and the use of this form of participation is that, in almost every country, the oldest group (formed by those 66 years old or more) is the one least inclined to use it. Therefore, if there is an individualistic fashion pushing young people to this form of participation it affects more clearly the group of those between 36 and 65 years old, than any of the groups of young people. Boycotting Finally, we come to the other form of participation that could be attracting those who opt for more individualistic forms: boycotting products for ethical, social or political reasons. Here the trend is even less clear than what happened with petitions. The effect of age is significant in very few countries and the direction of the relationship varies from one country to the other. In the case of boycotts we cannot even say that there is a general refusal to use this form or participation by the oldest group. In sum, if there is a process of individualization that is concentrated in some age groups, it is not visualized in their increasing preference for boycotts as a form of participation. Concluding remarks Let us try to sum up the answers to the questions we formulated in the introduction. Starting with the first: Do young people effectively participate less today than in the seventies? In general we have not found evidence of clearly lower levels of participation compared to young people in the seventies. In this sense, our results 17
seem to call off the alarm regarding new citizens political involvement. The comparison of data gathered during the seventies, eighties and 2002 reveals that young people among 18 and 25 have always voted less and have participated less in political parties. Moreover, there is no clear evidence that the distance from adults participation is higher now than it was before. However, there is one noticeable disparity between young people now and in the seventies. Namely, a growing distance between young people between 26 and 35 years and adults today, when compared to the seventies, in what refers to voting and to becoming party members. This growing distance to party-related forms of participation is not compensated by an increasing willingness to participate in acts of protest when compared to older groups in society. Young people today are neither more nor less prone than their counterparts in the seventies to attend demonstrations, to sign petitions or to participate in boycotts. The different nature of the two activities in which changes between today and the seventies have been identified indicates that young people s options have nothing to do with the costs that different forms of participation imply. Voting is a rather costless activity while being a party member implies a considerable cost in terms of time and effort. What is common to these two activities is that they are the two more clearly linked to political parties. It does not have to do either with a greater inclination for individualized forms of participation, as the lack of changes in petitions and boycotts shows. Can this greater reluctance to participate in party politics be explained by the different pace or characteristics of the life cycle of young people today, when compared to that of young people in the seventies? Not really. When it comes to the group of those between 26 and 35 years old, it seems more justified to refer to these differences as a generational effect. Comparative data sets in the future will have to be aware of this and incorporate in a systematic way questions that allow us to reach a conclusion about whether this may have to do with the increasing presence of individualistic values amongst the younger generations, even if they do not translated themselves in a growing preference for individualized forms of participation such as signing petitions and participating in boycotts. We have seen that young people today are not more inclined to participate in acts of protest than in the seventies. In fact, we have shown that the differences between young people and older groups of society have to do with the life cycle and, more specifically, with the fact that they are students. Two conclusions can be drawn in this 18
respect. The first one, that there is nothing characteristic to today s young people in their use of demonstrations as a form of political participation. The second is that, as young people move on to the next stage of the life cycle, these differences are likely to disappear. Is there a growing preference of young people for more individualistic forms of participation? Definitely not. Young people are not fonder of these forms than older citizens nor do they seem to show an increasing preference for them than young people in the seventies. There is a fourth question that we could answer, according to one of our points of departure: Are all youth homogeneous in terms of political participation, regardless of their age? Besides distinguishing between those how are not old enough to vote and those who are above 18, we have shown that it is worth, first, extending the consideration of young people all the way to 35 years old and, second, making a distinction between those who are between 18 and 25 and those that are over 25. We have see that, while the factors that explain away the reluctance of the youngest to vote have to do with the life cycle, the growing distance of the second group to using the vote as a form of political participation can be considered a generational phenomenon. Finally, we would like to call the attention to the difficulties of finding general trends that are applicable across countries. There are some countries in which there is a clear involvement deficit on the part of young people. This is the case of, for example, the UK where electoral turnout and participation in parties among young people is exceptionally low. It could also be the case of the rise of political consumerism in the Scandinavian countries. However, given the lower parties related involvement detected in a number of countries and the fact that in the majority of cases, this lower involvement is not being compensated by their engagement in emerging forms of political participation, further research will address the causes behind their lack of involvement. 19
References Tables and figures Table 1: Levels of political participation in each age group in six European countries in the beginning of the a Countries 18-25 26-35 Vote Participation in demonstrations Boycotts Membership in political parties Signing petitions 36-65 66+ N 18-25 26-35 36-65 66+ N 18-25 26-35 36-65 66+ N 18-25 26-35 36-65 66+ N 18-25 26-35 36-65 66+ N Austria 74 88 91 90 2099 17 16 8 2 2230 25 25 23 16 2218 6 6 16 15 2214 26 31 29 18 2232 64 73 85 86 1749 4 3 1 1 1998 33 36 28 11 1995 2 4 8 14 1996 33 36 23 11 1997 75 82 88 88 1649 22 11 10 4 1821 24 28 27 16 1819 2 1 4 6 1818 31 33 34 19 1816 Italy 81 86 93 86 1148 18 13 10 4 1200 6 6 11 3 1200 4 4 4 5 1199 12 18 22 6 1195 Netherl. 78 83 89 88 2272 3 3 3 2 2358 9 13 12 6 2359 2 4 5 7 2358 18 23 26 16 2355 U. Kingdom 43 62 78 84 1946 6 5 5 3 2051 13 24 31 25 2046 1 1 3 7 2050 42 45 44 29 2048 a Percentages of young people in each group that declare to have voted in the last elections or to have participated in each of the different kinds of actions during the last twelve months. Source: European Social Survey (2002-2003). Figure 1: Differences in participation between the different age groups in the seventies and in the beginning of the
ª
ª Participation ratios of each age group (% of participation of each group of young people / % participation of the age group 36-65 years old). 1 indicates that there are not differences between the percentage of participation of that group of young people and the percentage of the group of the 36-65 years old. <1 indicates that participation in that group of young people is lower than participation in the group of the 36-65 years old and >1 indicates that participation in that group of young people is lower than participation in the group of the 36-65 years old. Source: Political Action (1973-1976) and first wave of the European Social Survey (2002-2003). Figure 1 (cont.). Differences in participation between the different age groups in the seventies and in the beginning of the ª
ª Participation ratios of each age group (% of participation of each group of young people / % participation of the age group 36-65 years old). 1 indicates that there are not differences between the percentage of participation of that group of young people and the percentage of the group of the 36-65 years old. <1 indicates that participation in that group of young people is lower than
participation in the group of the 36-65 years old and >1 indicates that participation in that group of young people is lower than participation in the group of the 36-65 years old. Source: Political Action (1973-1976) and first wave of the European Social Survey (2002-2003).