Is Voting for Young People? explores the reasons why young people are less likely to follow politics and vote in the United States and other established democracies, no matter who the candidates are, or what the issues may be.
This brief, accessible, and provocative book suggests ways of changing that. Fully updated to include statistics and analysis from the 2020 and 2022 US elections, this book argues that politics and voting have increasingly become the province of the elderly, with a growing rift between politicians and young adults that weakens democracy. Employing a wealth of cross‑national data, Martin P. Wattenberg shows how changes in media consumption, neglect from politicians, and changing attitudes towards civic duty have created a generation gap in voter turnout and ceded important decisions on youth concerns to those who have different values and interests.
Illustrating the critical importance of engaging young voters, this book is an important read for students of democracy, political participation, elections, and voter behavior.
Introduction
1. The Aging of Regular Newspaper Readers
2. The Aging Audience for Politics on TV
3. Don't Ask Anyone Under 30
4. Where Have All the Young Voters Gone?
5. Do Young Adults See Voting as a Civic Duty?
6. Does Low Youth Turnout Really Matter?
7. A New Civic Engagement Among Young People?
8. Was Voting for Young People in the Obama Era?
9. Young People and Politics in the Trump Era and Beyond
10. What Can Be Done?
Biography
Martin P. Wattenberg is Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Irvine, USA.
