Disenchanted and Politically Unmotivated Youth: Findings From a Large-Scale Survey of Catalan High School Students

• In Event: Roundtable Session 40
  In Roundtable Session: Democratic Citizenship in Education SIG Paper Discussion

Abstract

Democracies cease to be democracies when they lack widespread conventional electoral participation along with other forms of civic participation and engagement. Nevertheless, there is a generalized concern that in many democracies, youth are increasingly less interested and motivated to participate democratically. Some have recently hypothesized that disenchanted youth who refrain from conventional political participation are nevertheless knowledgeable about politics and motivated to participate politically in other ways. This paper explores survey responses from 1709 Catalan adolescents; aged 15-16, to see what characterizes those who report no intention to vote. Our findings show that most students reported intent to vote. Those who did not scored comparatively lower on a civic knowledge test and had more narrow conceptions of political participation.

Authors

• Ann Elizabeth Wilson-Daily, Universitat de Barcelona

• Elvira Barriga, Universitat de Barcelona