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Harvard Professor: youth involvement is different, not decreased

In an interview on youth involvement in politics, Professor Pippa Norris argues that young people are still engaged in politics, but that they are participating in nontraditional ways. Rather than joining political parties and other civic organizations, they are forming more flexible and specific alliances to pressure politicians and the public on particular issues. “The challenge is for organizations like the Council of Europe to respond to these changes” and the higher standards she said today’s youth hold international institutions to.

Interview (28.11.2004)

Question : What role have advertising, mass media and the internet played in shaping these trends of non-traditional involvement in political life?

Pippa Norris : The internet is a key means of enabling these alternative political engagements. The digital divide is very clear. Older people rely on newspapers and mainstream television, while young people are often accessing the internet for environmental movements or anti-trade or anti-globalization movements. They’re using the web to network, to provide alternative sources of information, and to organise demonstrations—it is a new channel of activism for youth.

Question : When this generation of youth grows up and comes to power, what changes will we see in political life and how should organizations like the Council of Europe respond?

Pippa Norris : This is truly the global generation. When you look at attitudes towards international organisations—the UN, the EU, even the WTO - you find that young people are more supportive today. They travel more, they read more, and they are more global in their orientation. Although some youth are leading the anti-globalization movement, they’re all moving towards a much more cosmopolitan citizenship where the old boundaries are no longer as important. The nation-state and national politics aren’t going to be as important as they once were, but the international organisations are going to be more important.

This is a great opportunity for the Council of Europe. At the present the Council isn’t clearly distinguished in the public’s mind from the EU and other major institutions but insofar as young people are in favour of multilateral associations and collaborations between countries, there’s a large public that would be receptive to the work of the Council of Europe if it became more visible.

Question : How are youth responding to changes in gender politics?

Pippa Norris : Young people in affluent countries have become very egalitarian in terms of sexual equality; they realize that responsibility must be shared in the home, in the family, in the educational sphere and in the workplace. Not just attitudes towards women, but also attitudes towards homosexuals and sexual liberalization in the broadest sense (marriage, etc) have all changed dramatically. While older generations are more traditional, the real challenge is not the gap between young and old.

The real challenge is the cultural gap between those societies with egalitarian attitudes and those which are remaining more traditional - notably in Muslim countries, whether Arab or otherwise. For example, the Anglican church recently ordained a homosexual bishop, which was an American agenda, and those in Nigeria who opposed it now want to split the church.

Question : How does the struggle for youth empowerment compare to women’s struggle?

Pippa Norris : Women have had more success than young people partially because they have a more distinct set of interests. Institutions often adopt the rhetoric of empowering youth without putting it into practice, because other interests with more economic or electoral power often get a higher priority.

A real youth revolution would have to change the nature of parliaments and not just by rhetoric but by practical measures. Just as women often followed the African-American civil rights movements in America, so young people may have to follow women, to organize and lobby as a mass movement. Young people might also have to adopt affirmative action programs similar to those women have in Europe and Latin America. Could you reserve a certain number of seats for young people in proportion to the population? That sort of initiative hasn’t been on the agenda but it is starting to emerge.