Participation has always been a key issue in recent elections. Turn outs have been steadily on the rise with the total turn out in the 1918 general election being 57.2%, 59.4% in 2001, 61.4 in 2005 and 65.1 in 2010. With turn outs steadily rising it could be assumed that more people are becoming interested in politics; however the amount of eligible young people who chose to vote a drastically dropped. In 1987 66% of eligible young voters placed their vote having a say in how the country is run and its future. Contrast this with 2010 where only 44% of eligible young voters took place, we can see a clear differences. This large gap poses the question of why, if turn outs in general are rising, why as there been such a decrease in young participation.
Many theoretical ideas have been put forward to explained the supposed growing apathy among young people concerning political participation. Many believe it's due to growing distrust people feel towards politicians emphasized by recent scandals such as the expenses scandal and the supposed "losing" of documents that implicated certain MP's of crimes against children. Another argument is that over time, we as a people have become ore aware of the persuasive devises used, accompany this with broken promises such as Nick Clegg's famous U-Turn on university tuition fees, we have a recipe not for disinterest in politics, but a disinterest in politicians.
We are basing, or rather using similar techniques as the video below. Trying to find out if young people are interested in politics, and if not, the reasons for their lack of interest and what changes could be made to further engage young people in the politics of their country.
In 2013 local elections again painted a picture that young people were disinterested in politics. Only 32 % of 18-24 year olds voted compared with 72% of those aged over 65. This gap isn't just by chance and therefore shows a correlation between age and political apathy. A common argument given for young peoples lack of participation is that politics doesn't effect young people. However the IPPR suggests that it is young people who have in fact been hit the hardest by austerity measures and public spending cuts with 16-24 year olds experiencing service cuts worth up to 28% of their household income.
This shows evidence of political parties attempting to engage with young people by aiming policies at them. The idea is that including policies that effect the young generation could help solve the participation crisis or at least improve participation rates among young voters. However there is still the issue of distrust amongst politicians which could also be considered to be a factor in the lack of participation amongst young voters.
This chart shows the percentage of young people not in education and some would argue that not being in education makes you more susceptible to the effects of political change.
This depicts some of the most common reasons behind young peoples decision not to vote were in the 2001 General Election, as said before turnout has increased since 2001. This being said, the turnout of young people is still severely low. Some of these reasons will be investigated amongst the young people we interview and their responses will be included in our documentary.
we can see here, from the 16-24 age group above, 40% are disinterested in politics. We want to investigate this and the reasons behind it because there must be defining reasons why young people aren't engaged and don't feel politics that either affects them, or is something that they can be involved in. Though interest amongst young people is rising, possibly due to contextual factors like s social media allowing politicians engage more with young people and vice versa as political parties and leaders are join social media sites like Twitter and Facebook.
Examples of political propaganda and an example of politicians using social media to target young people can be seen above. Our documentary will investigate if this technique has had an impact on young people.
(1) - https://www.psa.ac.uk/sites/default/files/PSA%20Beyond%20the%20YCC%20FINAL_0.pdf
(2)-http://www.exeter.ac.uk/media/universityofexeter/research/microsites/epop/papers/Henn_and_Foard_-_Young_People,_Political_Participation_and_Trust_in_Britain.pdf
(3) - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23832607
(4) - http://www.labour.org.uk/
(5) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ic4JkAx5pc
(6) - http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/__data/assets/electoral_commission_pdf_file/0019/16093/youngpplvoting_6597-6188__E__N__S__W__.pdf
(7) - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-26271935
(8)- https://twitter.com/Conservatives
(9)- https://twitter.com/Ed_Miliband
Excellent - all relevant and sourced.
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