Background Document - Danish Institute for Parties and Democracy

There are two opposite trends regarding young people and political parties. One
is that the academic world has not considered young people and politics as a key research
topic, and political parties have not considered young people as an issue of concern
within their party. On the other hand, it seems that young people have different
interests in politics than their elders.
There is an overall understanding that there is a dramatic decline in the political
involvement of younger generations, and decreasing levels of youth participation in
elections, political parties and traditional social organisations. Research shows that
generally, young people conceptualise politics differently, ‘seeing it as an arena for the
older generation, and not linked directly to their own lives’. 4
They also have a broad mistrust of political parties. Research also shows that, overall,
young people who are not involved in politics have the feeling that political parties
are not addressing their interests and they feel powerless in relation to the political
system. They simply believe that they can’t have an impact. And even if they are members
of political parties, they cannot see themselves playing important roles or being
leaders in these parties.
“We are not going to be able to solve the
gender problem in our political parties without the
support of men within the women’s committee. We
have been missing that kind of strategy
as women in Kenya.”
In some countries, a two-party system seems to deter the political interests of
young people as they feel they have a lack of alternatives. It is worth noting that one
of the reasons the Greens party overall attracts more young members than the traditional
political parties is that the Greens party agenda tends to be much closer to
young people’s political concerns.
There are two voices in conceptualising the decline of young people’s political
interests. Some see the decline in interest in politics as a reflection of the increased
individualism within the population. Indeed, some argue that the lack of interest in a
formal model of political engagement is due to the new era of neoliberal discourse to
which young people have been submitted.
The neoliberal discourse has in some ways shifted interest from society to the
individual. Members of the younger generation would be primarily interested only in
themselves. Ward suggests that the new form of political engagement could be conceptualised
as political consumerism, whereby citizens would consume politics as
consumers would consume goods.
While the pessimistic voices see the increased individualism of society and the
consumption of politics as a threat to the future of democracy, the optimistic voices
look rather at the wide variety of political actions, formal and informal, which have
emerged over the last two decades and point the finger at the political parties not be-
4 Ann and Shuib, 2011, 175
WOMEN IN POLITICS DANISH INSTITUTE FOR PARTIES AND DEMOCRACY PAGE 12
MRS PENINAH MWASHEWA
NATIONAL LABOUR PARTY, KENYA