Argumentative essay (Introduction to politics and government

Title of the Essay

Student’s Name

Political Science Department, Capilano University

POL 100 03: Introduction to Government and Politics

Dr. Ramjee Parajulee

November 05, 2020

Over the last few decades’ young people have had a loss of faith in the political system. One of the symptoms of the decline in trust with the political system is the decline in voter turn out from youth. Between 1984 and the year 2000, the number of youth that voted went from 75.3% to 61.2% in the Canadian federal elections (Adsett, 2003). There are a number of reasons Canadian youth have begun to turn away from the political system. First, when compared to past generations youth have developed a sense of distrust with politics and a lack of responsible citizenship due to emerging social movements. Second, politicians fail to address many issues that young Canadians value, which has caused youth to lose faith in the current, set up of our political system. Third, there is a lack of education and discussion during youth’s formative years; leaving many youth disengage from politics. Fourth, the low voter turn out may be due to a lack of motivation to register to vote, which would further cement youths belief that the political system is a strenuous and complicated system that they can’t partake in. Finally, there is a huge cultural gap between today’s politicians and today’s youth due to the lack of political presence on the internet. Young people spend a huge amount of their time on the Internet and they may feel that politics today is out of touch with their needs and daily lives.

Today’s youth have developed ideologies and a preference for social movements that have meant very few youth have a sense of how to part take in traditional citizenship. After decades of wars that were against the public’s opinion, from the Vietnam War to the Iraq War, youth have developed a sense of mistrust of politicians. The anti-war attitude that youth currently have has meant that wars have become divisive issues rather than uniting issues. D. Fisher (2012) has explained that when compared to past generations who grew up during wartime, such as World War 2, the current generation of young people are unlikely to engage in any form of political and civic activities. Previous generations felt the need for nationalism and action-based citizenship whereas today’s youth have little need to participate. Furthermore, even youth who have a strong sense of what a “good” citizen should be end up with a weak idea of civic duty and prefer to emphasize the rights of citizens over the responsibilities (Goodman et al., 2011). Hence there is a clear pattern emerging among the young generation to remain aloof from the political process.

Anti-war sentiments are not the only areas that leave youth feeling disconnected and doubtful of today’s politicians. In general, the issues that matter most to youths are rarely addressed during election periods. R. Shabazz (2008) recognizes that “people have to feel their issues or concerns will be addressed, that there is a reason for them to get involved” (p.239) and that for today’s youth those issues center on post-secondary education, healthcare, jobs, poverty and discrimination. According to Adsett (2003) the Canadian political system “has given a low priority to the types of programmes and initiatives that have traditionally concerned Western youth (e.g. equality, and individual and human rights)” (p.262). This has led to an unfortunate symbiotic relationship between youth’s lack of faith in politics and politician’s lack of acknowledgement of youth issues. Politicians realize that youth voting is declining and that other demographics will be vital to winning elections, this leads them to turn their attention away from youth issues and focus their campaigns elsewhere. This begins a snowball effect, youth turn away from traditional political activities because they don’t appear to address anything of importance for youth, while politicians see the youth turning away and focus even less on them. This cycle continues to decrease youth’s interests in politicians and politician’s interest in youth (Walker, 2006). Trust between youth and politicians can only begin to rebuild when politicians realize that the youth vote has the potential to become a huge demographic that could potential sway elections and that to secure their votes youth need to know they will be acknowledged.

The small amount of Internet presence by politicians has been another area that causes youth to turn away from politics. Many current grassroots movements such as anti-bullying, anti-homophobia and human rights movements have gained huge support from the online community. Youth spend such a large amount of time online that they end up seeing these movements gain momentum, however, they don’t see politicians taking any interest. J. Ward (2005) found that during the 2004 American Presidential Elections, only 14 out of 21 political party websites aimed at youth actually talked about their issue positions and only 5 out of 21 websites included information on the voting process. These political party websites did not reach the young voters in a way that would gain their trust. The reason youth voting during the 2004 American Presidential Elections was higher than past years was because of a combination of factors; T. Walker (2006) described it as the “perfect storm” (p.28). They explained that the policy issues, grassroots movements, and media activity focused on young people and that resulted in high youth participation. This is again proving that by acknowledging the issues that are important to youth politicians can begin to rebuild youth’s faith in the political system.

Another way of developing trust between young people and politicians is through education. If political education was a part of secondary education, then youth would grow up with a better idea how our political system is shaped and this would foster trust between students and politics instead of the skepticism that many youth feel. Tupper & Cappello (2012) looked at a study done with students in a Saskatchewan high school. This study looked at how citizenship education being apart of the curriculum influenced students understanding of how to be active citizens. They found that while students had a good theoretical understating of what was expected of them as citizens, they failed to critically analyze the accountability of politicians with respect to the environment and understand the need for political action to instigate social change. Education of the political terms is not enough to shape students into being politically active citizens. There is also a need for discussions within classrooms so that students learn how to analyze political parties and for those discussions to over flow into discussions between youths outside of institutions (Lee et al. (2013). Classrooms should be utilized as a place for promoting positive political and civic engagement while showing students how our political system can be a place for change.

Not only do youth see the current political system as a forum that prevents social change and fails to address the issues that concern them, but it can also be seen as a strenuous system to partake in. Before youth are able to vote they must register and for a majority of new voters this can be a complicated and hard to understand process. According to C. Cherry (2012), the number of youth who vote is very high compared to the number of youth who are registered to vote. It is the amount of youth who aren’t even registered that are usually the youth who don’t participate in political and civic activities. It’s has been suggested that if the pre-registration age was lowered to sixteen or seventeen then high schools would be able to offer a more comprehensive explanation of registration because it would apply to many students and would become a regular part of the school curriculum. Similarly, licensing centers would be able to offer pre-registration when youth got their drivers licenses. This pre-registration would open up the possibility of deeper political discussion amoung youth and most likely raise the number of young people voting in elections (Cherry, 2012). If more young people vote, politicians will have to start addressing the youth agenda and begin to restore youth’s faith in the political system.

Young people’s trust in the political system has been declining for decades. This is seen by the decrease in youth voter turn out. There have been many reasons behind this decline in trust, mainly the lack of acknowledgement from politicians when it comes to issues that concern young adults and the social movements that they support. This mistrust and loss of faith is strengthened when the education system fails to promote open political discussion and learning, as well as the lack of political presence on the Internet that has seen a surge in the presence of social movements. Political education in high school as well as possible changes to pre-registration could promote a higher youth involvement in political and civic activities while also improving youth’s view on the political system. If youth’s loss of faith in the political system doesn’t reverse it could lead to a decline in democracy. As young people age their will be less and less politically active citizens to take part in elections and the democratic rituals that our country is built on.

Word Count: 1509 words

References

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