This document summarizes research on youth political engagement in Britain. It finds that socioeconomic factors like education, gender, ethnicity and social class influence young people's political interest, efficacy and trust in the system. While young people are interested in politics, they lack confidence in political parties and politicians and feel the system fails to address their concerns. Overall it suggests the political system is not adequately engaging youth and there are complex reasons for declining youth turnout, though not all young people are uniformly disengaged from politics.

1. DISCONNECTED YOUTH? THE IMPACT OF SOCIOECONOMIC AND EDUCATIONAL FACTORS ON
YOUTH POLITICAL ENGAGEMENT IN BRITAIN?
Network Youth and Participation Project, ‘Political
Participation of Young People’ Workshop 21st and
22nd June 2013, Istanbul Bilgi University
Matt Henn & Nick Foard
Nottingham Trent University
matt.henn@ntu.ac.uk
nick.foard@ntu.ac.uk
27/09/2013
Economic and Social Research Council award RES-000-22-4450

2. UK Electoral turnout trends since 1945
90
85
80
75
70
71,4
65
60
55
50
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2

3. UK Electoral turnout trends since 1945
90
85
80
75
70
71,4
65
60
59,4
55
50
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3

4. UK Electoral turnout trends since 1945
90
85
80
75
70
71,4
65
60
59,4
55
50
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4

5. Young people’s electoral turnout trends
1987-2010
70
68
66
65
61
60
55
50
45
44
40
39
35
37
30
1987
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1992
1997
2001
2005
2010
5

6. 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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6

7. 27/09/2013
7

8. 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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8

9. Data collection methods
• 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
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10. 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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10

11. 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
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14

12. In your opinion, what is the single most
important issue to you at the moment?
18%
Higher Education tuition fees
12%
Job prospects for young people
11%
Economy / recession
8%
Student fees / debt
5%
Cuts in education funding
4%
Unemployment / Factory Closures
4%
Finance / money
Race relations / immigration
4%
The way the country is governed
3%
Government spending cuts
3%
Taxation
2%
Health care
2%
Defence / foreign affairs / terrorism
2%
15

13. Table 2: Influences on political interest
amongst young people
B
Interest
Beta
Sig.
Constant
Male
.213
.106
.001
BME
.059
.019
.535
Having qualifications
.121
.058
.061
In full-time education
.523
.242
.000
Managerial / professional
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-.671
.000
.320
.158
.000
16

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17

15. Table 3: Confidence in personal knowledge and
understanding of politics
B
Internal efficacy
Beta
Sig.
Constant
Male
.407
.202
.000
BME
-.110
-.035
.275
Having qualifications
.142
.067
.036
In full-time education
.393
.181
.000
Managerial / professional
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-.631
.000
.184
.091
.005
18

16. 27/09/2013
19

17. Table 4: Confidence in the political system
B
External Efficacy
Beta
Sig.
Constant
Male
.011
.005
.880
BME
-.282
-.092
.010
Having qualifications
.081
.039
.278
In full-time education
.190
.088
.017
Managerial / professional
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-.210
.026
.119
.059
.103
20

18. 27/09/2013
21

19. 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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22

20. Table 5: Faith in the electoral process
B
Elections
Beta
Sig.
Constant
Male
.112
.056
.087
BME
.205
.067
.042
Having qualifications
.157
.075
.022
In full-time education
.248
.116
.001
Managerial / professional
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-.374
.000
.065
.032
.323
23

21. 27/09/2013
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22. Table 6: Perceptions of the “value” of elections
B
Value of elections
Beta
Sig.
Constant
Male
.065
.032
.322
BME
-.162
-.052
.107
Having qualifications
.091
.044
.179
In full-time education
.292
.136
.000
Managerial / professional
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-.378
.000
.258
.129
.000
25

23. 27/09/2013
26

24. 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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25. Table 7: Effectiveness of political parties and
politicians
B
Effectiveness of parties
Beta
Sig.
Constant
Male
-.037
-.018
.622
BME
.022
.007
.853
Having qualifications
.225
.107
.004
In full-time education
.164
.076
.045
Managerial / professional
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-.238
.012
.001
.001
.987
31

26. 27/09/2013
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27. 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
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35

28. Table 9: Trust in political parties and
politicians
B
Trust in parties
Beta
Sig.
Constant
Male
.110
.055
.139
BME
-.276
-.087
.018
Having qualifications
.117
.056
.132
In full-time education
-.014
-.007
.860
Managerial / professional
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-.140
.137
.105
.052
.162
36

29. Table 10: The impact of socio-economic factors on
young people’s political (dis)engagement in Britain
Education
X
X
SEC
X
X
X
X
X
X
Effectiveness
of parties
X
Qualifications
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X
Value of
elections
X
Ethnicity
Trust in
parties
X
Faith in electoral
process
Confidence in
knowledge/
understanding of
politics
X
Political
power(lessness)
Interest in
politics
Gender
X
X
X
X
38

30. 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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40

31. Does it matter if young
people don’t vote?
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