But, argues Nottingham Trent University researcher Professor Matt Henn: “There’s no quick fix for young people’s current disaffection with politics. If politicians are serious about making young people part of our democracy, then they must introduce a raft of well thought through programmes and systems that make young people feel that participation is meaningful and worthwhile.”
Compulsory first time voting, if introduced, could actually prove counter- productive, Professor Henn insists. Aversion to politicians is high, according to their survey of 1,025 young adults aged 18 -24 that he and co-researcher Nick Foard conducted a year on from the 2010 UK General Election. The overwhelming majority (81 per cent) held a negative view of politicians and only 8 per cent admitted any trust in political parties. More than half (57 per cent) claimed that elections don’t really change anything.
“Forcing young people to vote when they are so deeply sceptical of politicians could simply reinforce their negativity and resentment,” says Professor Henn, who is based in Nottingham Trent University’s School of Social Sciences. “Compulsory first time voting would also reinforce the negative stereotype of young people as being ‘different’ from the rest of the adult population - apathetic, politically irresponsible and basically not good citizens which is unlikely to help them feel truly connected to the democratic process.”
In the survey, 58 per cent of 18-24 year olds who said they were very unlikely to vote at the next election claimed that compulsory voting would make either no difference to this decision (38 per cent), or make them even less likely to vote (20 per cent). “From this we can infer that the introduction of compulsory voting would merely serve to reinforce existing feelings of resentment - perhaps even make young people more susceptible to parties with antidemocratic tendencies – especially those of the far-right,” Professor Henn warns.
Surprisingly, perhaps, the survey also reveals that young people are actually more open-minded about politics (as opposed to politicians) than many people might think. Nearly two thirds (63 per cent) of young people claim at least some interest in politics. Furthermore, young people appear to maintain some faith in electoral politics: more than half (57 per cent) state that they are committed to the principle of voting and 64 per cent said that were considering voting at the next election.
Professor Henn points out that converting this democratic commitment into democratic participation is the challenge and lowering the voting age to 16 could – as part of a wider raft of measures – help convince teenagers that they are valued by the political class, rather than maligned and excluded.
“At present it’s a vicious circle,” co-researcher Nick Foard explains. “Politicians tend to pursue policies that favour older and more voting inclined groups. If young people don’t vote they tend to be ignored by politicians. When they are ignored by politicians, young people don’t feel motivated to vote.”
To break this impasse, researchers suggest a programme of measures aimed at younger voters including an extended and enriched citizenship curriculum in schools; lowering the voting age to 16; voter registration up to and including voting day itself; and strong educational campaigns aimed at encouraging 16 year olds to see the value of registering to vote.
“The key question is how do we get more young people thinking about politics in such a way that they actually want to go and vote?” Professor Henn says. “Lowering the voting age or compulsory voting will not in themselves achieve this. Rather, extending the vote to 16 year olds should be tied-in with measures to improve young people’s political literacy and help make the idea of democratic participation second nature. Furthermore, practical measures such as keeping schools open on polling day so that young people can easily cast their vote while at school and allowing Election Day registration in schools might also help to boost young people’s turnout at elections.”
