Non-voting young people in conflict with the political system

ABSTRACT

This article argues that to grasp the reason why so many young people choose not to vote in local elections, we must supplement the many quantitative studies by asking the youth themselves. This study, then, is based on focus group interviews with young people discussing their experience of politics and political communication. In this way the analysis investigates how democracy and politics are essentially contested by young people. Inspired by Niklas Luhmann, the article furthermore argues that it is profitable to understand these many ‘noes’ to voting as a progressive conflict between non-voting young people and the political system.

KEYWORDS:

• Young non-voters
• political communication
• conflict
• democracy
• politics

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. The Danish Institute for Local and Regional Government Research.

2. DUF has since its foundation in 1940 been an experiment in democracy guided by a desire to develop DUF as well as their member organisations. DUF promote the rights and possibilities of children and young people and believe that debate and experimentation are crucial tools. Read more about DUF here: http://duf.dk/english/.

3. Marianne Thyrring was a public servant from the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Interior – the report was publicly called ‘the Thyrring report’.

4. Here first-time voters are defined as the age group comprising 18- to 24-year-olds (Thyrring 2013, p. 55).

5. Despite Luhmann’s use of the term functional systems, we shall understand Luhmann as a constructivist rather than as a functionalist or a structuralist. Luhmann was inspired by Talcott Parsons, but broke with Parsons’ idea of structural functionalism and called his own systems theory a functional structural theory. In that way, his theory embraced the dynamicity of both society’s functions and structures (Kneer and Nassehi 1997).

6. TNS Gallup is a Danish market research institute.

7. To cast a blank vote is to vote, but returning a blank ballot paper. The blank votes are counted in the statement of turnout.

8. In Denmark also local elections are almost exclusively organized around national political parties, which means that nearly all local politicians are members of a party and nominated as such.

9. Primary and lower secondary school in Denmark covers grades 0 to 9 (from approximately 6 to 15 years old).

10. These are called ungdomsuddannelser (upper secondary education) in Denmark and embrace the so-called gymnasium (high school) (which is a preparation for a number of different kinds of tertiary education, such as university), technical schools, business schools and others. Typically, the pupils are 15–20 years old at this point, but as this case shows, sometimes also older.

11. The law for municipal primary and lower secondary school prescribes in chapter 1, article 1, subsection 3: The municipal primary and lower secondary school ought to prepare the pupils for participation, co-responsibility, rights and obligations in a society having liberty and democracy. The school’s activity must be characterized by freedom of thought, equality and democracy (author’s translation) (Folkeskoleloven 2017).

12. The act of baring one’s bottom as a sign of defiance or provocation.

13. Jacob Haugaard is a Danish comedian, nominated and elected as a joke back in the 1994 national election.

14. Left-wing.

15. Right-wing.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Pernille Almlund

Pernille Almlund is associate professor in communication and she works with political communication, among other communicative perspectives. In 2017 she and a colleague published a book (in Danish) concerning local democracy and local elections in Denmark. In her contemporary research, her focus is on different types of campaign including political campaigns. Her main research topics are risk communication, environmental and climate communication and in 2012 she published an article ‘Negotiating and Communicating Climate’, which is an analysis of Danish politicians’ communication concerning climate.