tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca-fr/topics/youth-and-politics-14993/articlesYouth and politics – La Conversation2019-03-26T17:58:42Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1042512019-03-26T17:58:42Z2019-03-26T17:58:42ZShould Australia lower the voting age to 16? We asked five experts<p>Voting is a key part of the democratic process. It allows all citizens of a certain age to have a say on matters important to them. Voting in federal elections and referendums is compulsory for every Australian aged 18 and over. </p>
<p>But decisions made by elected governments – especially in areas such as education, health and energy – impact young people too. Legal and political voices <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/voting-age-should-be-lowered-to-16-law-expert-argues-20180711-p4zqvx.html">have long called</a> for Australia to lower the voting age to 16. After all, people under 18 can leave school, get a job, drive a car and pay taxes. So why not vote? </p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Joint/Electoral_Matters/VotingAge">parliamentary inquiry</a> is currently looking into the issue. In the meantime, we asked five experts their views. Here’s what they said.</p>
<h2>Five out of five experts said yes</h2>
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<p><strong><em>Here are their detailed responses:</em></strong></p>
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<p><em>If you have a “<strong>yes or no</strong>” education question you’d like posed to Five Experts, email your suggestion to: sasha.petrova@theconversation.edu.au</em></p>
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<p><em>Disclosures: Louise Phillips has received competitively awarded funding from The Spencer Foundation, and the Queensland Department of Education, and is a current member of the Early Childhood Australia and the Australian Association for Research in Education.</em></p>
<p><em>Philippa Collin has received funding from a range of government and quasi-government agencies (NHMRC, Australian Research Council, Department for Industry and Innovation, Western Australian Children’s Commissioner, UNICEF) as well as industry (Google, Navitas English) and non-profits (Multicultural Youth Affairs Network NSW and the Foundation for Young Australians). She is a member of the Technology and Well-being Roundtable and the Australian NGO Child Rights Task Force and an expert advisor to the Raising Children Network.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/104251/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
People under 18 can leave school, get a job, drive a car and pay taxes. Should they be allowed to vote too?Sasha Petrova, Section Editor: EducationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/609802016-06-15T13:14:25Z2016-06-15T13:14:25ZHow South Africa’s young women activists are rewriting the script<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126718/original/image-20160615-14042-36x4x0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Women students have been at the forefront of South African university protests.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Nic Bothma</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>What does it means to celebrate Youth Day in 2016, when many young South African women are little more than second-class citizens?</p>
<p>Young women are disproportionately exposed to <a href="http://southafrica.unfpa.org/topics/young-people-1">gender-based violence</a>. Women aged between 15 and 24 are four times as likely to contract HIV than men in the same age group. In 2013 99,000 female school pupils got <a href="http://ewn.co.za/2015/09/06/Alarming%20stats%20for%20teen%20pregnancy">pregnant</a> and less than a third reentered school. </p>
<p>It is against this backdrop that we should think about the role young women play in the country today. </p>
<p>In 1976 women students were deeply involved in the struggle against discriminatory education but were not viewed as actors in their own right. Forty years later women students are not willing to take a backseat again.</p>
<h2>(Black) women still marginalised</h2>
<p>In June 1976, at the time of the <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/topic/june-16-soweto-youth-uprising">Soweto Uprisings</a>, the apartheid government was relentlessly pursuing and intimidating Black Consciousness leaders and organisations. In September 1977 it killed <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/stephen-bantu-biko">Stephen Bantu Biko</a> for his beliefs.</p>
<p>Four decades on, Biko’s beliefs are influencing a whole generation of <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-bikos-black-consciousness-philosophy-resonates-with-youth-today-46909">students</a>. Many of the recent students’ <a href="https://theconversation.com/south-african-student-protests-are-about-much-more-than-just-feesmustfall-49776">campaigns</a> have drawn on the <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/sites/default/files/The_meaning_of_Black_Consciousness_by_Ranwedzi_Nengwekhulu.pdf">Black Conciousness</a> philosophies of Biko and <a href="https://theconversation.com/revisiting-frantz-fanon-memories-and-moments-of-a-militant-philosopher-59914">Frantz Fanon</a> to give content to their struggles. </p>
<p>These philosophies hold that black Africans need to free themselves from the psychological oppression of racism. It also means that black Africans must mobilise in “safe spaces” that don’t necessarily include <a href="https://theconversation.com/revisiting-frantz-fanon-memories-and-moments-of-a-militant-philosopher-59914">white allies</a>.</p>
<p>Back in 1976 the experience of black pain was central to students’ mobilisation, as it is now. But many women students feel that their experience of the pain of gender oppression is ignored. </p>
<p>That has changed. As Mbali Matandela <a href="http://mg.co.za/article/2015-03-30-rhodes-must-fall-how-black-women-claimed-their-place">explains</a>:</p>
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<p>As a member of this group of feminists, I have had the chance to voice the pain that black females experience based on how the “ideal” personality of an elite white male has influenced how black men treat black women and LBTQIA [Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex and Asexual] people … we decided that the way this movement was happening needed to change. And it did. Strong black women took up leadership positions in the movement and LGBTQIA members have taken leadership positions in our sub-committees, joint-meetings and protests. The movement also changed one of the songs we were singing at protests to make it inclusive of women.
The song “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYwgmOxhUvk">Nantsi indonda emnyama</a>”, meaning: “Here is a black man” was changed to include black women by adding “Nangu umfazi omnyama”, which means: “Here is the black woman” …</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Women students have not been afraid to embrace the label of feminist. They have been instrumental in starting the <a href="http://witsvuvuzela.com/2016/04/26/wits-fmf-feminists-stand-in-solidarity-with-rureferencelist-protestors/">#EndRapeCulture campaigns</a> on various campuses. Black women students have started to use the feminist concept of intersectionality to argue that oppression refers not only to race but also to gender, sexuality, sexual orientation and able-bodiedness. </p>
<p>Women were at the forefront of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/africa/topics/university-fees">#Feesmustfall</a> campaign. Many men became profoundly uncomfortable when gender took the front seat in campus decolonisation struggles. At Stellenbosch University it became such a <a href="http://mg.co.za/article/2015-08-27-not-open-says-open-stellenbosch">bone of contention</a> that a number of male students left the #OpenStellenbosch movement. This confirmed some men’s entrenched patriarchal attitudes.</p>
<h2>Uniting marginalised bodies</h2>
<p>Black women’s bodies are closely linked to the decolonisation project, which envisions a shift from Eurocentric curricula and institutional cultures to Afrocentric knowledge production. As was written in <a href="http://www.jwtc.org.za/resources/docs/salon-volume-9/FINAL_FINAL_Vol9_Book.pdf">Johannesburg Salon</a> on the decolonisation of tertiary education:</p>
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<p>We have realised that the systems of exploitation which confront oppressed people at this institution cannot be tackled internally, precisely because they are rooted in the world at large. Black bodies, female bodies, gender non-conforming bodies, disabled bodies cannot become liberated inside [of the University of Cape Town] whilst the world outside still treats them as sub-human. The decolonisation of this institution is thus fundamentally linked to the decolonisation of our entire society. </p>
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<p>The women students in the #EndRapeCulture campaigns were not afraid to <a href="https://theconversation.com/where-south-african-defamation-law-stands-on-naming-and-shaming-58246">name and shame</a> those whom they believed had got away with rape without any sanction from their institutions. They were also not afraid to employ topless protests as part of their strategies to raise consciousness about the endemic <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-universities-can-begin-to-tackle-rape-culture-on-their-campuses-57596">rape cultures</a> on campuses.</p>
<p>These students use the body as a site of resistance – for purposes of subversion, but also as a medium for change and movement building.</p>
<p>The women students have generated a certain feminist solidarity with their sisters all over the country through their #EndRapeCulture campaign. </p>
<p>Based on their intersectional approach they have linked their struggle with those of the LGBTIQ community. New concepts have become commonplace at South African universities. These include “<a href="http://queerdictionary.blogspot.co.za/2014/09/definition-of-cishet.html">cishet</a>” – people who identify with the gender they were assigned at birth and are heterosexual – as well as “trans”, or transgender people. </p>
<p>We can call the topless protests a form of the “<a href="http://www.dispatchlive.co.za/news/rhodes-students-protest-half-naked-against-rape/">politics of the spectacle</a>”. It is visual and in your face. It is also called “sextremism”, aimed at shocking the viewer.</p>
<p>The politics of the spectacle has found common ground with the Economic Freedom Fighters, whose <a href="http://www.timeslive.co.za/politics/2016/05/17/WATCH-Punching-pushing-and-shoving-as-chaos-erupts-in-Parliament-to-remove-EFF">spectacles in parliament</a> are well known. But it is not the same. These young women are committed to the principles of gender equality and to showing how women’s bodies are harassed all the time.</p>
<h2>A great deal achieved in little time</h2>
<p>These women have only been in the public eye for a short time, but have done more to break the silence around gender-based violence, especially in the tertiary education space, than some other longer-term initiatives. </p>
<p>The government, through its now defunct Ministry of Women, Youth and People with Disabilities, tried to deal with gender-based violence by establishing a National Council on Gender-Based Violence in the wake of one <a href="http://ewn.co.za/2013/10/31/The-Anene-Booysen-Story">particularly shocking</a> and brutal gang rape and murder. Women students – working without funding or the support of established structures – have raised consciousness and managed to get universities to appoint task teams to investigate sexual harassment on campuses.</p>
<p>In 1976 women students were deeply involved in the protests but not on a gender platform. Forty years later it is women who are now instrumental in raising consciousness about race and gender oppression, and who are at the forefront of mobilisation around gender-based violence. These women are fierce, principled and accountable to their constituencies. This is what we want from our future leaders.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/60980/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amanda Gouws receives funding from the National Research Foundation (NRF)</span></em></p>Women students have not been afraid to embrace the label of feminist, leading a wave of university protests in South Africa during 2015 and 2016.Amanda Gouws, Professor of Political Science, Stellenbosch UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/562712016-03-16T04:59:23Z2016-03-16T04:59:23ZThe 24/7 city, creativity and the lockout laws<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115206/original/image-20160316-25496-1qawo6i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Our visions of the future embrace huge, glittering cities, but Sydney has a case of the little town blues.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Warner Bros.</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A city, especially in the global age, is active, night and day. Some cities particularly – New York or Hong Kong or Tokyo – are commonly presented at night. They are magic lands lit with public television screens, flashing neon and LED text.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083658/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Blade Runner</a> uses this night-time city as a picture of the future; its buildings become nodes of constant flows of information and electricity. Unlike the pre-modern village, which structured its days on the sun, the perfected modern metropolis is a 24-hour city, which “never sleeps”.</p>
<p>When the West wanted to demonstrate the backwardness of North Korea, the Western media proliferated a satellite image of a blackness – the size of a country – just above a shimmering South Korea.</p>
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<span class="caption">NASA image taken by the Expedition 38 crew aboard the ISS shows night view of the Korean Peninsula.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">NASA/Reuter</span></span>
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<p>This vision from space was also used in Star Wars to introduce, in <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120915/">The Phantom Menace</a> (Episode 1), the city planet Coruscant. It is New York scaled up, not just the administrative and cultural centre of a world but of the universe. The planet’s name, from the Latin, means glittering. </p>
<p>Coruscant is vital, powerful and beautiful (in some shots it looks like Brasilia meets Renaissance Venice). But it is also artificial and sickly: civilisation covers the whole planet, nature is a pot plant and the smog covered ground level has been uninhabitable for 1,000 years. Life is above ground in skyscrapers, recalling the class divide of another early vision of the future, contained in the film <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0017136/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Metropolis</a>.</p>
<p>This paradox of the city has haunted culture since its invention in the mid-19th century. As soon as the city came into being, middle class urbanites started putting pictures of praying peasants on their walls and hiring wholesome milkmaids as wet-nurses. There was something worryingly immoral and dirty about cities.</p>
<p>The first City of Light was of course Paris; it is the model that everyone followed. The nickname was earned because it was almost uniquely, at that time, lit up. Streetlights first appeared under Louis XIV but the planning vision was completed under <a href="http://www.britannica.com/biography/Georges-Eugene-Baron-Haussmann">Baron Haussmann</a> in the 1850s. The design facilitated a complex life after dark. But it also allowed for better surveillance and scrutiny — all the better to see into the dark corners of lurking revolutionaries and criminals. </p>
<p>In their effort to picture modernity, Impressionists painted all the new daytime activities of Paris: from walking the freshly laid promenades to peering through the industrialised glass panes of shops. But they also began to paint the nightlife: the absinthe drinker; the lady of the night; the theatre; the bar girl; the singer. The Impressionists were just as interested in the magical ambience of gaslight and the limelight as the effects of sunlight on a haystack. </p>
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<span class="caption">At Gennelle, Absinthe Drinker by Toulouse-Lautrec.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.wikiart.org/">via Wikiart.</a></span>
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<p>When Sydney was preparing to debut itself to the world in the 1879 World Fair, it looked to Paris. Its Second Empire Style Town Hall, based on French models, not English ones, stood for the future, the new.</p>
<p>It is not a coincidence that Gustave Eiffel not only designed a tower but also the logo for Noilly Prat Vermouth (which is still used today). Both are in their own way symbols of the city and of modern progress. Industrialisation and its certainties allowed for the tower to stand up and for the barman to be assured that every martini he mixed would be the same, and good. </p>
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<span class="caption">Noilly Prat Vermouth logo.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Chris</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
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<p>A big city, as the centre of states, has traditionally accommodated all comers, almost as a defining feature. That is why, even on the extremes, we need planning laws that stipulate where our (legal) brothels go, where the erotic book shop is sited (right next to Abbey’s in Sydney), and where the bar precinct is. </p>
<p>The modern utopian dream of the model city wants to stay open, totally. In this place there are no curfews; transport runs all night; bankers working foreign stock exchanges go to dinner after trading; comedy writers drink litres of coffee and order takeout; and live music plays through the evening.</p>
<p>In 2001, Tony Blair ran for PM on a platform of keeping London open. New Labour sent an email to primarily prospective young voters that said “couldn’t give a ‘four x’ for last orders? Vote Labour on Thursday for extra time.” The new laws came into effect in 2005.</p>
<p>Last year, a report from the free market leaning Institute of Economics lauded the success of the laws. Its author, Chris Snowdon, <a href="http://www.iea.org.uk/in-the-media/press-release/longer-opening-hours-have-been-a-success">noted</a>, “The hysteria about so-called 24-hour drinking ranks as one of the great moral panics of our time, but the evidence is now clear: the doom-mongers were wrong … The biggest consequence of relaxing licensing laws has been that the public are now better able to enjoy a drink at the time and location of their choice.” </p>
<p>The report goes on to say that the diversity of offerings has gone up, including small bars and clubs. Statistically, too, assaults and other binge drinking related crime have gone down in London. This may not be a direct cause of the legislation, but at least indicated that the 24-hour city had not “made matters worse”.</p>
<p>Back in Sydney, we have a terrible case of little town blues. We are seeing a perfect case study for illustrating Michel Foucault’s political theory of “micropower”. Instead of merely laws, Foucault suggests that we are primarily controlled in modern society by smaller more socially embedded modes of control. These include our education systems, science and health experts and even the buildings we live and work in. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.justice.nsw.gov.au/Pages/media-news/media-releases/2016/mr-liquorlawreview.aspx">Ian Callinan review</a> will no doubt bring together a phalanx of experts (emergency doctors, drug experts, criminologists and police) arguing for the lockout laws on the grounds that they save lives.</p>
<p>The experts’ information is presented to us as neutral, when it cannot help but have some subjectivity and ideology (even a disciplinary bias for example) underpinning it. What we are seeing in the lockout laws is primarily a neoliberal point of view: we are kept safe to be better workers, gentrification leads to rising property prices and as Richard Cooke in The Monthly has highlighted, baby boomers (i.e. those in power) are <a href="https://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2016/march/1456750800/richard-cooke/boomer-supremacy">not really concerned anymore with the issues of the young</a>. </p>
<p>I do not believe the instrumentalist claims of those tweeting at <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/casinomike">#CasinoMike.</a> who argue the laws are part of a conspiracy to boost casino business. The lockout laws are not born from Machiavellian complexity; they are a result of merely thoughtless, harried governance.</p>
<p>These laws represent what Foucault would see as a form of control through care; the care seems well-meaning but obviously delimits freedom. By reducing the debate to the overly simplistic terms of drinking versus safety, the discussion fails to take into account the whole social infrastructure at stake. The concern for our safety does not even meet the sober professionalism of the nanny (state). Instead we have the thin-lipped nervousness of the helicopter parent.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115199/original/image-20160315-25492-3sk5ak.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115199/original/image-20160315-25492-3sk5ak.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115199/original/image-20160315-25492-3sk5ak.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=796&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115199/original/image-20160315-25492-3sk5ak.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=796&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115199/original/image-20160315-25492-3sk5ak.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=796&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115199/original/image-20160315-25492-3sk5ak.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1000&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115199/original/image-20160315-25492-3sk5ak.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1000&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115199/original/image-20160315-25492-3sk5ak.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1000&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Toulouse Lautrec’s La Goulue arriving at the Moulin Rouge with two women.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">via Wikiart</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>So intent on securing us from risk, the laws infantilises us all and stifles our activity. The argument that we are a binge-drinking culture that cannot be trusted actually ossifies the situation and never allows for the growth into a mature culture. There is a limit to risk management. </p>
<p>The blinkered debate also closes down alternative methods and solutions (like the London 24-hour model or better transport options). In a recent <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-03-16/fact-check-do-other-world-cities-have-lockout-laws/7225790">ABC fact check</a> this problem was exemplified. The check seemed to work hard to find cities that proved Sydney’s laws had precedent (Glasgow, Whangarei, “a city of around 50,000 people” in New Zealand). What about “world cities” such as Paris or London or Hong Kong? </p>
<p>Gilles Deleuze coined the term “society of control,” which moves Foucault’s analysis away from the policing of our health and safety towards the policing of exits and entrances, through ID and other screening, which he sees as the general new approach to law and order.</p>
<p>The lockout is the perfect example of this new order. It treats people as guilty before they can prove that they should be let in. The whole citizenry is being treated as a class of potential hooligan. That may be efficient policing but it is not good policing.</p>
<p>The modern city wants to accommodate a broad spectrum of life, from work to carnivalesque excesses. Bars, clubs and other places of mischief have an enormously important role in our societies and not just for the young. </p>
<p>They are the places of play, of celebration, of dance and imagination. The birth of the city saw a huge explosion of cultural and artistic pursuits (for all the new theatres, bars, galleries and halls) all driven by the energy and appetites of the residents. The city itself became not only a venue but a muse. </p>
<p>So to the strains of the clarinet in the opening of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynEOo28lsbc">Rhapsody in Blue</a>, day begins in the big smoke. The city is the perfect place for clubbers to share a coffee with early rising suits. They should have an equal right to see the sunrise.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/56271/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Oliver Watts does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The city, with its carnivalesque excesses, has long been a muse for artists. But Sydney’s lockout laws infantilise its citizens and stifle activity.Oliver Watts, Lecturer, Sydney College of Arts, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/371672015-03-02T19:20:21Z2015-03-02T19:20:21ZGenerational divide when ‘doing politics’ vanishes on need to fix it<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/72177/original/image-20150216-30467-1q8bj9c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Power of 1 exhibition explores differences in perceptions and forms of political participation across generations and how these are likely to affect the direction of our democracy.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://powerof1voice.moadoph.gov.au/pages/media">Museum of Australian Democracy</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Are younger generations apathetic about politics, combining complacency with self-absorption, and so threatening the future of Australian democracy? One of the strongest findings from decades of research is that what citizens do politically in their early years tends to set the trend for their engagement with politics in the future. So, it matters that we understand how younger generations are engaging with democratic politics by comparison with older generations. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.sbs.com.au/powerof1/#results">findings</a> of our survey work and analysis challenge negative stereotypes and give grounds for optimism. They show that within the younger generations are citizens with the enthusiasm and capacity to change Australian politics.</p>
<p>Younger generations are often defined as the problem. The Lowy Institute, drawing on its own survey work, concluded in a <a href="http://www.lowyinstitute.org/publications/more-young-australians-dismissing-democracy">recent article</a> that “the current generation of 18-29-or-so-year-olds … are not particularly interested in democracy”. It argued that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… young Australians value their democracy less than their counterparts in Indonesia (an emerging democracy), India (a newer democracy than ours) and Fiji (not a democracy at all).</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But are younger citizens uninterested in democracy? Are they switched off by politics more than other generations? We think not.</p>
<h2>Why do generations matter?</h2>
<p>The idea of a generation or cohort of people born around the same time is an important one in social inquiry. Cohorts matter because they are potential <a href="http://personal.psc.isr.umich.edu/yuxie-web/files/soc543-2004/Ryder1965.pdf">drivers of change</a> in society. </p>
<p>The mix of continuity or change from previous generations is shaped by differences in education, peer group socialisation and unique historical experience. So society reproduces itself, but the result is likely to be a mix of stability and innovation as each generation’s experiences come into play.</p>
<p>We focus on four generations of Australian citizens: those born between 1925-45 – the Builders – reflecting their role in rebuilding Australia after the second world war; the Baby Boomers born between 1946-64 who are seen as having driven social change from the late-1960s onwards; Generation X (from 1965-79) and Generation Y (1980-94). These last two are of particular interest as they mostly came of voting age in the 21st century.</p>
<h2>Ways of doing politics are many</h2>
<p>Our survey work underpins the <a href="http://powerof1voice.moadoph.gov.au/">“Power of 1 Voice”</a> exhibition at the Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House. Conducted by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ipsos">Ipsos</a>, the survey was designed to capture a representative sample from each of the four Australian generations that we were interested in.</p>
<p>The first thing it tells us is that the great divide is not between engaged older generations and apathetic younger generations. In practice, both do politics, though with varying levels of enthusiasm. However, what is clear is that both do politics differently.</p>
<p>We asked how our respondents engaged with politics. We divided the answers into those that reflected more traditional forms of doing politics and those we labelled more contemporary. </p>
<p>Traditional forms included taking an active role in the community; joining a political party; presenting views to an elected representative; attending a demonstration; standing for office; taking an active part in a lobby or campaign; boycotting products for political or other value-based reasons; and the ubiquitous signing of a petition. </p>
<p>Contemporary forms tend to reflect the options available online. These included using social media; contributing to blogs; getting involved in an E-campaign; joining an online advocacy group; and engaging in crowd-sourced funding for a cause.</p>
<p>The results, presented below, show that different generations are doing their politics differently. </p>
<iframe src="https://d3602hfvnbc5pq.cloudfront.net/Tpoto/1/" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" oallowfullscreen="oallowfullscreen" msallowfullscreen="msallowfullscreen" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>There is not a straight dichotomy between older generations doing everything traditionally and younger generations doing everything in a contemporary style. However, the overall pattern is very clear. The older generations do more through conventional forms of political engagement; the younger generations do more through contemporary forms.</p>
<p>In short, it is not that young people do not participate in politics. Rather, they participate differently through different channels.</p>
<h2>Perceptions of effectiveness affect participation</h2>
<p>So far all that Tables 1 and 2 tell us is that younger citizens are more comfortable with newer technology and so it’s no surprise they use it more. We did a bit more analysis to explore why younger citizens might do their politics differently. The answer is that they think that doing it that way is more effective.</p>
<p>It’s not a question of ease of access alone; there is a view that politics online achieves more among younger generations.</p>
<iframe src="https://d3602hfvnbc5pq.cloudfront.net/k5hyX/1/" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" oallowfullscreen="oallowfullscreen" msallowfullscreen="msallowfullscreen" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>All generations judge traditional tools as effective to a degree, but older generations are stronger in their backing of traditional tools than younger generations. Younger citizens are more convinced by the efficacy of online tools. They are convinced that they have more impact that way.</p>
<p>That in turn suggests that these new online forms are not a passing fad, but likely to grow in significance if younger generations remain convinced that they can make a difference through online activism.</p>
<h2>Thinking our way to a better politics</h2>
<p>So far we have emphasised the differences between generations. But when it comes to thinking about how to reform the political system, there is a remarkable conformity across generations. </p>
<p>All generations think that contemporary <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-can-governments-and-leaders-do-when-trust-evaporates-37333">politics is in trouble</a>. A majority of all generations admire democratic politics for the stability and benefits it delivers and the opportunity it affords to hold politicians to account to ensure their performance in meeting citizens’ needs. </p>
<p>Equally, a majority of all generations’ fears about the practice of democracy coalesce around ideas that too much <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-price-the-public-good-when-governing-parties-bow-to-markets-37046">power is concentrated</a> in the hands of big business and the media. Consequently, politicians too easily break the promises they have made.</p>
<p>The two most supported reform options can be seen as a response to this observation. The first is focused on the idea of giving citizens more influence and parties less. This might involve placing caps on political advertising and donations, more free votes in parliament, the opportunity to go for “none of the above” when voting, the right to recall MPs and the greater use of online plebiscites to give voters a chance to express their views directly.</p>
<p>The second option goes along with much of that agenda but is distinctive in its support for greater local decision-making. It is noteworthy that a majority of citizens appear to favour a mix of reforms combining mechanisms to free and open up representative politics with an opportunity for more direct intervention by citizens themselves.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/72108/original/image-20150216-6120-isynjq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/72108/original/image-20150216-6120-isynjq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/72108/original/image-20150216-6120-isynjq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=363&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/72108/original/image-20150216-6120-isynjq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=363&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/72108/original/image-20150216-6120-isynjq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=363&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/72108/original/image-20150216-6120-isynjq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/72108/original/image-20150216-6120-isynjq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/72108/original/image-20150216-6120-isynjq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">What reforms would you make to the current system, by generation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Authors, Institute for Governance and Policy Analysis</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Negative stereotyping of younger generations as apathetic, apolitical and disengaged is mad, bad and dangerous for the health of Australian democracy. Our evidence suggests that young Australians passionately believe in democratic values, possess strong political views and are actively engaged in contemporary forms of participation. They simply do not like the current politics on offer through traditional forms of participation.</p>
<p>The message to mainstream political institutions and parties is clear. A new politics is required to win the hearts and minds of young Australians to ensure that their democratic energies nurture and enhance Australian democracy. This different politics needs to be <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-not-listen-to-the-people-for-a-solution-to-the-reform-stalemate-36772">more participatory</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-can-governments-and-leaders-do-when-trust-evaporates-37333">open</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/new-politics-announces-itself-in-queensland-and-beyond-37101">local</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/talking-loud-saying-nothing-the-old-political-pitch-no-longer-works-37063">digital</a>.</p>
<p>It’s probably true to say that each generation has a tendency to bemoan the failings of the one that follows it. But, in our view, it is evident that politicians accuse younger voters of apathy to divert attention from their own behaviour. What they fail to see is that Australians see politicians as the source of the present crisis.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Other articles in The Conversation’s ongoing series, “New Politics”, can be read <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/new-politics">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/37167/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mark Evans has received research funding from a variety of sources including foundations, research councils, governmental and non-governmental organisations and international organisations. The survey underpinning this research was funded by the Museum of Australian Democracy. However, the views expressed in this article are our own and cannot be attributed to the funding organisation.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gerry Stoker has received research funding from a variety of sources including foundations, research councils, governmental and non-governmental organisations and international organisations. The survey underpinning this research was funded by the Museum of Australian Democracy. However, the views expressed in this article are his own.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>The survey underpinning this research was funded by the Museum of Australian Democracy. However, the views expressed by Mark Halupka in this article are his own.</span></em></p>Australians divide along generational lines when it comes to participating in politics. Less predictably, they are almost united on the need to fix the political system and the best ways to do that.Mark Evans, Director of the Institute for Governance and Policy Analysis, University of CanberraGerry Stoker, Fellow and Centenary Professor, Institute for Governance and Policy Analysis, University of CanberraMax Halupka, PhD candidate, ANZOG Institute for Governance and Policy Analysis, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.