Does Voting at 16 Lead to Political Socialization from Child to Parent?

• In Event: Citizenship Norms and Youth in Times of Rapid Social Change

Abstract

Previous research has shown that the relationship between parents and children is one of the strongest venues of political socialization. Especially during adolescence, parents have a strong influence on the political attitudes and political engagement of their children. More recently, however, a new scholarly view has emerged, arguing that processes of socialization are not only one-directional. Rather than being directed top-down, it is argued that socialization also works bottom-up: children influencing their parents’ political engagement and overall attitudes. This new view, however, has not received much systematic attention in scientific research yet.
We add to this newly emerging line of research by investigating the effect of granting the right to vote to 16- and 17-year-olds on their parents’ political engagement. In general, citizens appear increasingly disengaged from politics and large parts of the electorate no longer turn out to vote. One of the alleged solutions to counter these trends is to lower the voting age to 16. Consequently, several countries have introduced voting rights for 16-year-olds, assuming that this will increase their political interest and overall engagement. While some studies have indicated that such voting laws increase political interest among youngsters, it still remains to be investigated whether granting adolescents the right to vote also influences their parents’ political engagement.
To investigate bottom-up processes of socialization, we use the unique situation in the city of Ghent (Belgium), where 16- and 17-year-olds were entitled to vote in a mock election that was organized shortly before the Belgian municipal elections of 14 October 2018. To investigate the effect of this election, we surveyed the parents of youngsters between 15 and 19 years old about their political attitudes and preferences. By not limiting the study to parents of 16- and 17-year-olds, but including the parents of 15-year-olds as well, we dispose of information about the political attitudes of parents of adolescents immediately above and below a cut-off point; the voting age for the mock-election (16). Assuming that the date of birth in the weeks before and after this cut-off is randomly assigned, our study can be considered as a quasi-experimental design in which groups of similar parents are divided according to the right of whether or not their child had the right to cast a (mock )vote. Using Regression Discontinuity Designs – with the Election Day as cut-off – this design allows us to estimate the causal impact of the right to vote of 16-year-olds on their parents’ political attitudes such as political interest, knowledge, and engagement. Furthermore, as voting is compulsory in Belgium from the age of 18 on, with the use of the same design, we can investigate the effect of youngsters turning 18 years old, and hence being obligated to vote, on their parents’ political attitudes.

Author

• Dieter Stiers, KU Leuven