From Deficit to Disenfranchisement: Reframing Youth Electoral Participation

Abstract

Low youth electoral turnouts are considered problematic in many democracies. Here I explore youth electoral engagement in the Australian context where the policy literature attributes low youth electoral enrolments to apathetic and disassociated youth, and the response is Civics and Citizenship education. This construction of youth and advocacy of education prevails despite recent challenges by researchers describing young people as interested in politics and committed to democracy, as well as evidence that education is limited in its capacity to effect change. Here, I ask why, if young people have access to education and express interest in politics, do many still not enrol and vote? With reference to data collected as part of the Australian Youth Electoral Study I argue for a reframing of both the problem and the solution. Instead of focusing on the deficiencies of individual youth, I shift the focus to barriers that can precipitate young people's disenfranchisement. In doing so I examine not ‘deficient youth’, but the capacity of Australia's democracy to facilitate youth electoral engagement. In this context I examine the role that the state plays in constructing these barriers and causing the disenfranchisement of many young Australians.