Political Participation among the Young in Australia: Testing Dalton's Good Citizen Thesis

Abstract

In his 2008 book, The Good Citizen: How a Younger Generation is Reshaping American Politics, Russell Dalton argued that young people are `reshaping American politics'. Dalton's good citizen thesis argued that young people, inthe United States and in other advanced democracies, are much more likelyto engage in non-electoral forms of participation (such as attending a demonstration and signing a petition) and less likely to participate in electoral forms of activity (such as voting and joining a political party). Using data from the International Social Survey Programme this article examines the extent to which this is the case in Australia. In doing so, the author finds that non-electoral forms of engagement are much more attractive to the young, and the influence of electoral politics seems to be waning. This, it is argued, could have large effects on the future of Australian democracy.