Intra-generational inequalities in young people’s political participation in Europe: The impact of social class on youth political engagement
| Author | Maria Grasso,Marco Giugni |
| DOI | 10.1177/02633957211031742 |
| Published date | 01 February 2022 |
| Date | 01 February 2022 |
| Subject Matter | Special Issue Articles |
https://doi.org/10.1177/02633957211031742
Politics
2022, Vol. 42(1) 13 –38
© The Author(s) 2021
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DOI: 10.1177/02633957211031742
journals.sagepub.com/home/pol
Intra-generational inequalities
in young people’s political
participation in Europe:
The impact of social class on
youth political engagement
Maria Grasso
Queen Mary University of London, UK
Marco Giugni
University of Geneva, Switzerland
Abstract
The declining political engagement of youth is a concern in many European democracies. However, young
people are also spearheading protest movements cross-nationally. While there has been research on
political inequalities between generations or inter-generational differences, research looking at differences
within youth itself, or inequalities between young people from different social backgrounds, particularly
from a cross-national perspective, is rare. In this article, we aim to fill this gap in the literature. Using
survey data from 2018 on young people aged 18–34 years, we analyse how social class background
differentiates groups of young people in their political engagement and activism across nine European
countries. We look at social differentiation by social class background for both political participation in a
wide variety of political activities including conventional, unconventional, community and online forms of
political participation, and at attitudes linked to broader political engagement, to paint a detailed picture
of extant inequalities amongst young people from a cross-national perspective. The results clearly show
that major class inequalities exist in political participation and broader political engagement among young
people across Europe today.
Keywords
inequalities, participation, political attitudes, social class, young people, youth
Received: 11th June 2020; Revised version received: 10th March 2021; Accepted: 18th June 2021
Introduction
As Dalton (2017) notes, the political disengagement of some social sections of the population
is a fundamental political problem deeply undermining the very notions of democracy and
democratic government. In particular, if these political inequalities by resources and
Corresponding author:
Maria Grasso, School of Politics and International Relations, Queen Mary University of London, Mile End
Road, London E1 4NS, UK.
Email: m.grasso@qmul.ac.uk
1031742POL0010.1177/02633957211031742PoliticsGrasso and Giugni
research-article2021
Special Issue Article
14 Politics 42(1)
background such as by social class exist among young people, this can be seen to further
problematise the issue given they are the adult citizens of tomorrow and therefore that these
negative patterns are likely to reproduce themselves in the future unless reforms are not put in
practice to redress this. A world where political disengagement and political inequalities keep
rising is clearly a problematic context for the effective functioning and continuation of democ-
racy (Barber, 1984). In particular, examining political inequalities among young people in the
current context should allow us to shed light on the extent of contemporary inequalities as
opposed to those emerging from past processes (Giugni and Grasso, 2021a). How large are
inequalities in political participation and political engagement among young people today?
This is a fundamental issue for democracy since the presence of large gaps in political partici-
pation undermines political equality, which is a key principle of democratic societies, and
further leads to suboptimal government decision-making as not all voices are being heard
(Grasso and Bessant, 2018; Giugni and Grasso, 2020).
While some optimistic voices point to the large waves of youth mobilisation around
the issues of racism, climate change, austerity and sexual harassment (Grasso and
Giugni, 2016; Giugni and Grasso, 2015a,b, 2018, 2021b; Grasso and Bessant, 2018), as
some notable recent examples, there remain clear concerns about the exclusion of youth
from political decision-making, whether this be in terms of their lower rates of electoral
engagement to select representatives (Grasso et al., 2018), the fact that youth voices and
issues are seldom centre-stage of the political arena (Giugni and Grasso, 2020), or the
fact that the youth deficit model of political engagement still functions today as the key
approach in many respects (Earl et al., 2017). Moreover, there have also been concerns
that the current generation of youth is less civic-minded and interested in collective pur-
suits such as political engagement (Putnam, 2000). While others have argued that young
people are indeed engaged in other means and that their ‘doing politics’ should be the
focus of analysis (Henn et al., 2002; Pickard, 2019), it is likely that as among all age
groups, political participation and political engagement amongst youth will be highly
patterned by social inequalities in terms of resources and background, particularly in
terms of social class background. While it is true that well-off young people may still be
very much ‘doing politics’, it remains troubling if particularly those coming from back-
grounds with lower levels of resources engage at lower rates, whether this is through
activities linked to political parties and other political organisations or political repre-
sentatives, or whether this is in terms of applying pressure through protest activism,
community or volunteer activism or even online participation. In other words, while
some healthy scepticism of ‘critical citizens’ (Norris, 1999) is very much to be wel-
comed in democratic societies, scepticism which leads to withdraw from those means of
engagement which would allow us to have an impact on decision-making remains very
problematic – particularly if it affects sectors of the population with lower resources to
start with (Grasso et al., 2019) thereby reinforcing negative patterns rather than improv-
ing democratic conditions. Given the importance of this issue for democratic societies,
it is a question that needs to be deeply analysed, scrutinised and the underlying empirical
patterns clearly understood and documented to allow for developing means to address
current woes into the future and improving the functioning of democratic societies.
To address these important questions, this article examines the nexus between social
inequality and political participation and engagement among youth today in a comparative
perspective. Using survey data from 2018 on young people aged 18–34 years, we analyse
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