It would be easy to level the blame for youth’s disengagement from local politics on young people themselves as Thomas Patterson does when he claimed that, “today’s young adults are less politically interested and informed than any cohort of young people on record” (2002). However many theorists note that a decline in institutionalised political engagement with local government has not been matched by a decline in non-traditional forms of political engagement as Putnam (2002) would have contended. In contrast youth participation in non-traditional or non-institutionalised forms of participation such as signing petitions, taking part in demonstrations, getting involved in charity work, involving themselves with issue-based networks, and engaging in school or university based politics are increasing (Keeter et al., 2002).
A significant amount of scholarly research into youth disengagement from politics and civic life reveals its root cause as the increasing ‘alienation’ of youth from politics (Bell, 2005; Carpini, 2000; Johnson et al., 1998; Keeter et al., 2002; Longo and Meyer, 2006). This is a catch-all term for a complex set of inter-connected factors, however at its core disengagement is associated with low efficacy (Svensson, 2009).
Youth Alienation From Local Politics Is Caused By
i. Cynicism
ii. Distrust
iii. Apathy
iv. Low Efficacy
v. Low Levels of Political Knowledge
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