Institutional determinants of youth political participation in the EU, 2002-2016

Abstract

Declining levels of youth political participation pose a major challenge to many advanced and new democracies. Institutional context is a significant unexplored factor in shaping levels of youth political participation. Especially when it comes to newly established democracies, there is little existing research on how macro level factors shape levels of youth political engagement. When explaining political participation, the majority of the literature refers to individual level characteristics as main determinants of youth political engagement.
The influence of political institutions on political participation is widely studied comparatively in general terms but not in relation to youth. This is surprising given the widely held view that young people are one of the most disengaged groups in democratic politics. There is little cross national research on how the age of democracy together with other country level characteristics influence the political participation of young people specifically. In addition, most existing research considering macro level factors as determinants of political participation focuses on voting. These significant gaps are addressed by this thesis, which considers voting, formal political participation (e.g. contacting a politician, being a member of a political party) and informal political participation (e.g. working in another organisation, wearing a badge, signing a petition, taking part in demonstration, boycotting, and taking part in online political activism). This thesis contributes to current debates over political participation and enables insights into the determinants of youth informal political participation.
Focusing on newly established and advanced democracies across the EU, this study explores whether country level characteristics influence the propensity of young individuals to engage in politics. This thesis therefore investigates the following research question: What are the institutional level determinants of youth political participation in the EU? I outline an empirical analysis exploring the effect of age of democracy, levels of corruption, and type of electoral system on the propensity of young individuals to participate in politics in the EU, differentiating between electoral, formal, and informal participation. This thesis develops an institutional theory of youth engagement in politics and offers the original claim that dimensions of the institutional setting of a country account for variations in levels of youth political participation across the EU. I argue that age of democracy together with other country level characteristics fundamentally condition the way young people participate in politics. In order to assess these claims, I analyse time series cross sectional data from the European Social Survey (2002A2016) combined with a country level dataset of institutional measures between 2002 and 2016 by applying multilevel logistic regression.
In summary, the findings of this thesis show that the longer the democratic experience, the more likely are young people to engage in politics, be it voting, formal, or informal activities. Results suggest that high levels of corruption decrease youth political engagement in electoral, formal, and informal politics. Moreover, youth voter turnout is higher in countries with proportional representation.
Main conclusions once comparing all age groups are that younger individuals participate more in informal politics compared to older individuals. On the other hand, older people vote more than young people, however, the institutional setting of a country accounts for differences in these patterns. For instance, young people in established democracies tend to vote at similar rates as middle aged people in new democracies. The results raise fresh concerns and explore new questions regarding the role of political institutions in shaping youth political participation.

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ORCID for William Jennings: orcid.org/0000-0001-9007-8896

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