Is “Political Apathy” a Danger for Our Future Democracy? Possibilities for Better Educational Practices

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

Political apathy is the indifference of young citizens towards any political activity, elections, governmental decisions, civic services and similar. In this symposium we connect four different research groups, two from the US and two from Europe, measuring in different ways political apathy and presenting results with respect to reflected educational reactions. The first paper claims that there is much less political apathy as usually believed. The second study elicits quite shaking results on political apathy of 15 year old students in the oldest democracy in the world, Switzerland. In a third study results are presented from the civic attitude of demographically high-risk youth that point to educationally significant factors associated with greater civic and political engagement. A fourth study argues for a more social oriented psychology.

Sub Unit

• Division E - Counseling and Human Development / Section 2: Human Development

Chair

• Fritz K. Oser, University of Fribourg

Papers

• Beyond Facts and Acts: The Implications of “Ordinary Politics” for Youth Political Engagement - Joel Westheimer, University of Ottawa; Kristina R. Llewellyn, University of Waterloo

• Civic Education in Times of Political Apathy - Fritz K. Oser, University of Fribourg; Horst Biedermann, University of Flensburg

• Clues to Increasing the Civic-Political Engagement of Demographically High-Risk Youth - William Damon, Stanford University; Parissa Jahromi Ballard, Stanford University; Heather Malin, Stanford University; Anne Colby, The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching

• Possibilities and Constraints for a More Critical-Democratic Citizenship in Contemporary Education? The Role of Psychology - Wiel M. Veugelers, University of Humanistic Studies Utrecht

Discussant

• Clark Power, University of Notre Dame