matt henn & nick foard - disconnected youth?

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DISCONNECTED YOUTH? THE IMPACT OF SOCIO- ECONOMIC AND EDUCATIONAL FACTORS ON YOUTH POLITICAL ENGAGEMENT IN BRITAIN? Matt Henn & Nick Foard Nottingham Trent University [email protected] [email protected] Economic and Social Research Council award RES-000-22-4450 27/09/2013 Network Youth and Participation Project, ‘Political Participation of Young People’ Workshop 21 st and 22 nd June 2013, Istanbul Bilgi University

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Page 1: Matt Henn & Nick Foard - Disconnected Youth?

DISCONNECTED YOUTH? THE IMPACT OF SOCIO-

ECONOMIC AND EDUCATIONAL FACTORS ON

YOUTH POLITICAL ENGAGEMENT IN BRITAIN?

Matt Henn & Nick Foard

Nottingham Trent University

[email protected]

[email protected]

Economic and Social Research Council award RES-000-22-4450 27/09/2013

Network Youth and Participation Project, ‘Political

Participation of Young People’ Workshop 21st and

22nd June 2013, Istanbul Bilgi University

Page 2: Matt Henn & Nick Foard - Disconnected Youth?

UK Electoral turnout trends since 1945

71,4

50

55

60

65

70

75

80

85

90

27/09/2013 2

Page 3: Matt Henn & Nick Foard - Disconnected Youth?

UK Electoral turnout trends since 1945

71,4

59,4

50

55

60

65

70

75

80

85

90

27/09/2013 3

Page 4: Matt Henn & Nick Foard - Disconnected Youth?

UK Electoral turnout trends since 1945

71,4

59,4

50

55

60

65

70

75

80

85

90

27/09/2013 4

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Young people’s electoral turnout trends 1987-2010

66

61

68

39 37

44

30

35

40

45

50

55

60

65

70

1987 1992 1997 2001 2005 2010

27/09/2013 5

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General Election 2010: a turning point in youth voting?

1. University tuition fees at the top of the campaigning agenda

2. Election – opportunity to instigate change through voting

3. Televised leadership debates

27/09/2013 6

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Page 8: Matt Henn & Nick Foard - Disconnected Youth?

Project Aims

1. Examine young people’s orientation to the political process

2. Determine the extent to which there is a diversity of political

outlooks, shaped by key variables (such as gender, ethnicity,

social class and educational career)

27/09/2013 8

Page 9: Matt Henn & Nick Foard - Disconnected Youth?

Data collection methods

27/09/2013

• National study of 1,025 young people (18 year olds) using an

online survey (fieldwork 20th April to 4th May 2011)

• Fourteen online focus groups with 86 young people who

opted not to vote at the 2010 General Election

9

Page 10: Matt Henn & Nick Foard - Disconnected Youth?

Dependent variables

• Political interest

• Confidence in knowledge and understanding of the democratic process

• Political power and influence

• Attitudes to

i) electoral process and

ii) value of elections

• Perception of effectiveness of political parties and professional politicians

• Trust in political parties and professional politicians

27/09/2013 10

Page 11: Matt Henn & Nick Foard - Disconnected Youth?

27/09/2013

Table 1: Political Engagement (%)

Some or more

None at all

How much interest do you generally have in politics?

63

12

How interested were you in the general election that was held on May 6th last year?

64

14

14

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15

2%

2%

2%

3%

3%

4%

4%

4%

5%

8%

11%

12%

18%

Defence / foreign affairs / terrorism

Health care

Taxation

Government spending cuts

The way the country is governed

Race relations / immigration

Finance / money

Unemployment / Factory Closures

Cuts in education funding

Student fees / debt

Economy / recession

Job prospects for young people

Higher Education tuition fees

In your opinion, what is the single most important issue to you at the moment?

Page 13: Matt Henn & Nick Foard - Disconnected Youth?

Table 2: Influences on political interest amongst young people

27/09/2013

Interest B Beta Sig.

Constant -.671

.000

Male .213 .106 .001

BME .059 .019 .535

Having qualifications .121 .058 .061

In full-time education .523 .242 .000

Managerial / professional .320 .158 .000

16

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Page 15: Matt Henn & Nick Foard - Disconnected Youth?

Table 3: Confidence in personal knowledge and understanding of politics

27/09/2013

Internal efficacy B Beta Sig.

Constant -.631

.000

Male .407 .202 .000

BME -.110 -.035 .275

Having qualifications .142 .067 .036

In full-time education .393 .181 .000

Managerial / professional .184 .091 .005

18

Page 16: Matt Henn & Nick Foard - Disconnected Youth?

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Table 4: Confidence in the political system

27/09/2013

External Efficacy B Beta Sig.

Constant -.210

.026

Male .011 .005 .880

BME -.282 -.092 .010

Having qualifications .081 .039 .278

In full-time education .190 .088 .017

Managerial / professional .119 .059 .103

20

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Faith in the electoral process

• Elections help to keep politicians accountable for the

promises they make (agree 43% : 31%)

• Elections give voters an opportunity to tell politicians what

they think is really important (agree 53% : 18%)

• Having regular elections forces politicians to listen carefully

to public opinion (agree 50% : 20%)

27/09/2013 22

Page 20: Matt Henn & Nick Foard - Disconnected Youth?

Table 5: Faith in the electoral process

27/09/2013

Elections B Beta Sig.

Constant -.374

.000

Male .112 .056 .087

BME .205 .067 .042

Having qualifications .157 .075 .022

In full-time education .248 .116 .001

Managerial / professional .065 .032 .323

23

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Table 6: Perceptions of the “value” of elections

27/09/2013

Value of elections B Beta Sig.

Constant -.378

.000

Male .065 .032 .322

BME -.162 -.052 .107

Having qualifications .091 .044 .179

In full-time education .292 .136 .000

Managerial / professional .258 .129 .000

25

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Perception of the effectiveness of political parties and politicians

• Political parties are effective organisations for changing the lives of

people for the better (agree 21% : 31%)

• My member of parliament tries hard to look after the interests of

people in my constituency (agree 24% : 17%)

• Parties generally do a good job in finding suitable people to run for

parliament (agree 22% : 29%)

• Political parties do a good job of listening to young people's concerns,

and then responding to them positively (agree 12% : 51%)

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Page 25: Matt Henn & Nick Foard - Disconnected Youth?

Table 7: Effectiveness of political parties and politicians

27/09/2013

Effectiveness of parties B Beta Sig.

Constant -.238

.012

Male -.037 -.018 .622

BME .022 .007 .853

Having qualifications .225 .107 .004

In full-time education .164 .076 .045

Managerial / professional .001 .001 .987

31

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27/09/2013

Table 8: Trust in political parties and politicians (%)

Agree Disagree

There is often a big difference between what a party promises it will do and what it actually does when it wins an election

75 3

In general, political parties are more interested in winning elections that in governing afterwards

65 9

The main political parties in Britain don't offer voters real choices in elections because their policies are pretty much all the same

40 18

Political parties do more to divide the country than unite it 47 12

In elections, political parties don't tell people about the really important problems facing the country

48 16

Governments don't really care what young people like me think 54 14

Those elected to parliament soon lose touch with people 62 6

Parties are only interested in people's votes, not in their opinions 65 8

35

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Table 9: Trust in political parties and politicians

27/09/2013

Trust in parties B Beta Sig.

Constant -.140

.137

Male .110 .055 .139

BME -.276 -.087 .018

Having qualifications .117 .056 .132

In full-time education -.014 -.007 .860

Managerial / professional .105 .052 .162

36

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Table 10: The impact of socio-economic factors on young people’s political (dis)engagement in Britain

27/09/2013

In

terest in

p

olitic

s

Co

nfid

en

ce in

kn

ow

led

ge/

u

nd

ersta

nd

ing

of

po

litics

Po

litical

po

wer(le

ssn

ess)

Faith

in e

lecto

ral

pro

cess

Valu

e o

f ele

ctio

ns

Effe

ctiv

en

ess

of p

artie

s

Tru

st in

p

artie

s

Gender X X

Ethnicity X X X

Qualifications X X X

Education X X X X X X

SEC X X X

38

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Conclusion

• Contrary to the common stereotype of a politically apathetic

generation, young people are interested in politics, and have faith in

the democratic process.

• The political system and the established parties and politicians that

dominate it, are together failing to provide the stimuli necessary to

encourage young people to engage with formal politics…

• Their recent experience of their first general election in 2010 has left

them feeling somewhat disheartened.

• Our study has revealed a considerable aversion to formal, professional

politics and to the political classes who are charged with conducting

politics on their behalf.

• But things are more complex – there is no uniform pattern…

• And all we can say with certainty is that there is no quick fix when it

comes to reversing the decline in youth political participation

27/09/2013 40

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Does it matter if young people don’t vote?

27/09/2013 41