In a third of all countries, eligibility for national parliament starts at 25 years or older. And around 1.65 % of parliamentarians are in their twenties, the average age is 53 years. Nowadays around 17 % of the human population is between fifteen to twenty-four years old and it is rising. Africa has the largest youth population. There around 20 % are younger than 25 years old.
The political participation often depends largely on political, socio-economic and cultural contexts. One important factor for younger people to get in contact with politics is technologies, like the Internet, especially social media, which give the young new opportunities to participate in political actions, but also to inform themselves about political issues and conflicts. There is also a notable gap between young and old for example in their interests and also in their preferred political party.
Nowadays young people have the chance to gain more information
but also to get in contact with fake news or bad influence, which has an effect on the formation
of opinions. Additionally, places with bad infrastructure
or with conflicts oppress the
young. A large youth population is a sign of
optimism and hope for a country, especially for highly developed countries. So if young
people engage in politics, they bring more value to
civil issues, which is an improvement of
democracy.
The problem is that young people are
feeling increasingly marginalized, cynical and unsatisfied with political establishments, which sadly often
reduces their engagement and activism.
In Europe young people, mostly at
universities, protest against youth
unemployment, the costs of university education and
right-wing populist movements, but they
engage less in elections than previous
generations did.
Although the current generation is more
educated than previous ones, this generation has to deal with a higher
unemployment rate than before.
Furthermore, young educated people are more likely to
have more than one job to fulfill their basic needs. Nevertheless, many have to deal with
poorer health and have to live
in poverty, and this
leads to an increased wage
inequality.
Social unrest is the result of youth
unemployment, perceptions
of rising inequalities, increased poverty
levels and the lack of confidence
in governments and political
institutions.
These factors have historically been a key
influence in peaceful and violent political regime changes across the world.
Not including young people
causes economic stress, unemployment and
inequality.
In fragile or post-conflict states, mostly
based in Africa, violence is a response to disempowerment, social exclusion and poor economic conditions. Also young people, especially young men, are often seen as
dangerous trouble-makers and people ignore the
underlying social, economic and
political causes for youth anger and violence.
Another problem is that some countries are underdeveloped where high levels of instability, violent conflicts and corruption are dominated.