Pushing for Change: Youth and Political Participation Box 3.2 The world’s parliaments: not a place for young people According to the Inter-Parliamentary Union, of the 45,000 members of national legislatures in the world, only 1.9 per cent are below the age of 30. If the definition of ‘young’ is relaxed to include everyone below the age of 40, the proportion of young law-makers rises to 14.2 per cent. In only four countries – Sweden, Ecuador, Finland and Norway – do people below the age of 30 add up to at least 10 per cent of the total number of lawmakers in the country. Except Ecuador, the other three countries are among the 30 highest-ranked countries in the YDI. Nearly one-third of ‘lower chambers’ of parliament and close to 80 per cent of ‘upper chambers’ surveyed do not have a single member of parliament below the age of 30. Of the world’s young MPs who are below the age of 30, only two-fifths are female. accountable public services,17 strengthen democracy and civil society,18 and create more peaceful and tolerant nations.19 the Asian Barometer shows that in East Asia the youth turnout rate in elections is 30–40 per cent lower than that of adults.24 In Singapore, despite voting being compulsory, voter turnout among young people has fallen from 63 per cent to 38 per cent in recent years.25 The steady decline in young people’s political involvement all over the world is giving rise to what some are calling a ‘democratic deficit’.26 3.3  Losing faith: young people and formal politics Young people’s engagement with politics is a complex phenomenon and is affected by a range of social, economic and political variables. At a global level, youth political participation does not fit one single pattern but some trends can be discerned from available data and research. While the indicators in the 2016 YDI reflect an improvement in the enabling environment for youth political participation, young people themselves tend to be less engaged with formal modes of participation. For example, there is ample evidence to suggest that they are less likely to vote than older people. Consciously or not, many young people are abstaining from voting and also opting out of other formal modes of political participation such as joining political parties or standing for public office. In Europe, already an ageing society, young voters are much less likely to vote than older people. With each successive election the proportion of youth that votes declines further.20 In the USA, only 23 per cent of Americans between the age of 18 and 34 voted in national elections in 2014, compared with 59 per cent of those aged over 65.21 Similarly, in the 2015 parliamentary election in the UK, and the referendum on European Union membership in June 2016, fewer young people than adults are believed to have voted.22 The Afrobarometer survey, which covers 19 of the most democratic countries in Africa,23 also shows low levels of youth involvement in the formal political processes, while Source: Inter-Parliamentary Union 2016. However, in young democracies where there may be greater levels of optimism among young people about their ability to influence decisions and policies through elections, turnout among younger voters is usually higher. In Vietnam and Cambodia, two countries that have become more democratic in recent years, youth participation is higher than average for the region.27 Growing pessimism about their economic prospects in comparison with those of adults, particularly in the wake of the 2007–08 global financial crisis, is also leading to young people taking a greater interest in politics in many countries. For instance, there was a surge in voting by young South Koreans in the 2016 election, resulting in a change in government.28 3.3.1 What is behind the decline in youth participation in formal politics? The explanations for declining youth participation in formal political structures and processes can be broadly categorised into those that focus on young people themselves and those that lay much more emphasis on the wider socio-economic and political context or structures within which participation is meant to take place. Some scholars attribute the low participation levels of young people to apathy and slow maturity. The ‘apathy’ thesis suggests that \ 71