DISCONNECTED YOUTH? THE IMPACT OF SOCIO-
ECONOMIC AND EDUCATIONAL FACTORS ON
YOUTH POLITICAL ENGAGEMENT IN BRITAIN?
Matt Henn & Nick Foard
Nottingham Trent University
Economic and Social Research Council award RES-000-22-4450 27/09/2013
Network Youth and Participation Project, ‘Political
Participation of Young People’ Workshop 21st and
22nd June 2013, Istanbul Bilgi University
UK Electoral turnout trends since 1945
71,4
50
55
60
65
70
75
80
85
90
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UK Electoral turnout trends since 1945
71,4
59,4
50
55
60
65
70
75
80
85
90
27/09/2013 3
UK Electoral turnout trends since 1945
71,4
59,4
50
55
60
65
70
75
80
85
90
27/09/2013 4
Young people’s electoral turnout trends 1987-2010
66
61
68
39 37
44
30
35
40
45
50
55
60
65
70
1987 1992 1997 2001 2005 2010
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General Election 2010: a turning point in youth voting?
1. University tuition fees at the top of the campaigning agenda
2. Election – opportunity to instigate change through voting
3. Televised leadership debates
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27/09/2013 7
Project Aims
1. Examine young people’s orientation to the political process
2. Determine the extent to which there is a diversity of political
outlooks, shaped by key variables (such as gender, ethnicity,
social class and educational career)
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Data collection methods
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• National study of 1,025 young people (18 year olds) using an
online survey (fieldwork 20th April to 4th May 2011)
• Fourteen online focus groups with 86 young people who
opted not to vote at the 2010 General Election
9
Dependent variables
• Political interest
• Confidence in knowledge and understanding of the democratic process
• Political power and influence
• Attitudes to
i) electoral process and
ii) value of elections
• Perception of effectiveness of political parties and professional politicians
• Trust in political parties and professional politicians
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Table 1: Political Engagement (%)
Some or more
None at all
How much interest do you generally have in politics?
63
12
How interested were you in the general election that was held on May 6th last year?
64
14
14
15
2%
2%
2%
3%
3%
4%
4%
4%
5%
8%
11%
12%
18%
Defence / foreign affairs / terrorism
Health care
Taxation
Government spending cuts
The way the country is governed
Race relations / immigration
Finance / money
Unemployment / Factory Closures
Cuts in education funding
Student fees / debt
Economy / recession
Job prospects for young people
Higher Education tuition fees
In your opinion, what is the single most important issue to you at the moment?
Table 2: Influences on political interest amongst young people
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Interest B Beta Sig.
Constant -.671
.000
Male .213 .106 .001
BME .059 .019 .535
Having qualifications .121 .058 .061
In full-time education .523 .242 .000
Managerial / professional .320 .158 .000
16
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Table 3: Confidence in personal knowledge and understanding of politics
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Internal efficacy B Beta Sig.
Constant -.631
.000
Male .407 .202 .000
BME -.110 -.035 .275
Having qualifications .142 .067 .036
In full-time education .393 .181 .000
Managerial / professional .184 .091 .005
18
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Table 4: Confidence in the political system
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External Efficacy B Beta Sig.
Constant -.210
.026
Male .011 .005 .880
BME -.282 -.092 .010
Having qualifications .081 .039 .278
In full-time education .190 .088 .017
Managerial / professional .119 .059 .103
20
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Faith in the electoral process
• Elections help to keep politicians accountable for the
promises they make (agree 43% : 31%)
• Elections give voters an opportunity to tell politicians what
they think is really important (agree 53% : 18%)
• Having regular elections forces politicians to listen carefully
to public opinion (agree 50% : 20%)
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Table 5: Faith in the electoral process
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Elections B Beta Sig.
Constant -.374
.000
Male .112 .056 .087
BME .205 .067 .042
Having qualifications .157 .075 .022
In full-time education .248 .116 .001
Managerial / professional .065 .032 .323
23
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Table 6: Perceptions of the “value” of elections
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Value of elections B Beta Sig.
Constant -.378
.000
Male .065 .032 .322
BME -.162 -.052 .107
Having qualifications .091 .044 .179
In full-time education .292 .136 .000
Managerial / professional .258 .129 .000
25
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Perception of the effectiveness of political parties and politicians
• Political parties are effective organisations for changing the lives of
people for the better (agree 21% : 31%)
• My member of parliament tries hard to look after the interests of
people in my constituency (agree 24% : 17%)
• Parties generally do a good job in finding suitable people to run for
parliament (agree 22% : 29%)
• Political parties do a good job of listening to young people's concerns,
and then responding to them positively (agree 12% : 51%)
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Table 7: Effectiveness of political parties and politicians
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Effectiveness of parties B Beta Sig.
Constant -.238
.012
Male -.037 -.018 .622
BME .022 .007 .853
Having qualifications .225 .107 .004
In full-time education .164 .076 .045
Managerial / professional .001 .001 .987
31
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Table 8: Trust in political parties and politicians (%)
Agree Disagree
There is often a big difference between what a party promises it will do and what it actually does when it wins an election
75 3
In general, political parties are more interested in winning elections that in governing afterwards
65 9
The main political parties in Britain don't offer voters real choices in elections because their policies are pretty much all the same
40 18
Political parties do more to divide the country than unite it 47 12
In elections, political parties don't tell people about the really important problems facing the country
48 16
Governments don't really care what young people like me think 54 14
Those elected to parliament soon lose touch with people 62 6
Parties are only interested in people's votes, not in their opinions 65 8
35
Table 9: Trust in political parties and politicians
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Trust in parties B Beta Sig.
Constant -.140
.137
Male .110 .055 .139
BME -.276 -.087 .018
Having qualifications .117 .056 .132
In full-time education -.014 -.007 .860
Managerial / professional .105 .052 .162
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Table 10: The impact of socio-economic factors on young people’s political (dis)engagement in Britain
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In
terest in
p
olitic
s
Co
nfid
en
ce in
kn
ow
led
ge/
u
nd
ersta
nd
ing
of
po
litics
Po
litical
po
wer(le
ssn
ess)
Faith
in e
lecto
ral
pro
cess
Valu
e o
f ele
ctio
ns
Effe
ctiv
en
ess
of p
artie
s
Tru
st in
p
artie
s
Gender X X
Ethnicity X X X
Qualifications X X X
Education X X X X X X
SEC X X X
38
Conclusion
• Contrary to the common stereotype of a politically apathetic
generation, young people are interested in politics, and have faith in
the democratic process.
• The political system and the established parties and politicians that
dominate it, are together failing to provide the stimuli necessary to
encourage young people to engage with formal politics…
• Their recent experience of their first general election in 2010 has left
them feeling somewhat disheartened.
• Our study has revealed a considerable aversion to formal, professional
politics and to the political classes who are charged with conducting
politics on their behalf.
• But things are more complex – there is no uniform pattern…
• And all we can say with certainty is that there is no quick fix when it
comes to reversing the decline in youth political participation
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Does it matter if young people don’t vote?
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