How Political Issues Affect Youth, and How Youth Can Affect Political Issues - Essay Example

Political Issues and Youth Since time immemorial, researchers have been deeply interested in the role that politics plays in the development of the youth and their lifestyles. While politics was generally associated with the adults, up until now, the last few… How Political Issues Affect Youth, and How the Youth Can Affect Political Issues Introduction Since time immemorial, researchers have been deeply interested in the role that politics plays in the development of the youth and their lifestyles. While politics was generally associated with the adults, up until now, the last few decades has seen a shift in the pattern. The youth participation in politics has increased, though it still is marginally low compared to the percentage of adults scoping politics. This paper is a simple attempt to understand the effect that politics or political issues have on the youth and the affect that youths can bring about in politics or political issues. Politics and political issues affecting the youth As mentioned in the book by Lerner and Steinberg, “identity is considered a definitive task of the adolescent and young adult years. As young people reflect to who they are, the future to which they aspire, they will also take stock of their societies. Political views are taking shape as part of this process, although youth may not refer to them as such if politics connotes only conventional activity to them. But politics reflecting an individual worldview, politics as a language for explaining social problems is forming in these years, although it is probably well into the third decade of their life before these views crystallize” (Jennings, 1989). The above statement completely explains how the youth form their political images and views. While these reformative years make for the way that the youth attune themselves to problem solving and issues as such, the policies made by the policy makers affect the youth more than anyone or anything else. It is the policies made during these reformative years of the life of the youths that ultimately result in their future preferences and the way they look upon the policy making. The recent president elect Barrack Obama has launched a reformative economic project, aiming at bringing about a u-turn in the degenerative American economy of the present. Take this as an example of how this is going to affect the American youth. American youth has been crying hoarse what with the economic showdown, Iraq war, rising inflation etc under the bush administrations. The high number of foreclosures and the falling real estate values had led the American youth into a kind of subversive hole-up, with most of them falling under the debt trap. However, the new economic policies will and should be able to bring the youth out of the gloom. With the new president focusing on giving the US economy a facelift, what with the booster plan costing more than $175 billion, the plan also focuses on the American youth by also increasing the number of jobs and vacancies (CNN and MSN News reports). With more jobs and better economic grounds, the youth are bound to succeed in establishing themselves from hand-to-mouth existence to the ones with savings. The recent economic blow-up has taught them this one lesson to save before spending and thus, these youth will prove to be dependable in future establishments. Secondly, as Lerner and Steinberg right corroborated in their book, Handbook of Adolescent Psychology, the early impressions make for the later political interests and policy making decisions. For the same reasons, with the youths being overtly affected by the crass economic policies of the Bush administration, their interests into future policies, especially in terms of the economy, is sure to zoom in. Not only will this create a better interest in the political decisions and dimensions, this will also help in carving out a political loyalty amongst these youths too. While the affect of the politics and policies on the American youth has been established here, it still remains to be seen what affect the American youth might have in terms of politics and policies. The next section discusses just this. Youth Affecting Political Issues Franklin D. Roosevelt had once told in his speech, “Nobody will ever deprive the American people of the right to vote except the American people themselves-and the only way they could do this is by not voting.” While the sentiment described above my President Roosevelt was extremely applauded then, the youth these days are being noticeably ignorant of the fact. Each election notices a missing chunk of its population amongst the ballots. According to a United Nation Survey report, the adolescent and youth population accounts for more than one third the total population (Brown, Larsen, Saraswati, 2002). With such a huge population not being interested in politics, the results also prove to be devastating. According to Ryan Dashek, the number of youth voters has been steadily decreasing. While this is detrimental to the concept of democracy, it also results in the non-proportional representation of the American youth population. Brown, Larson and Saraswati have mentioned in their book that though the politics has seen a change of face from the anarchist form of politics t the democratic form of politics, the youth participation still accounts to very less. Due to the same, it is more of the “apathy” that can be used to describe the attitude of the youths and adolescents towards the politics. However, according to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, the last two elections have seen a rise in the number of youth voters. The election of Barrack Obama itself was a reproach enough in terms of the American youth, as Obama got the record votes from the youth themselves. No politician before Obama had been able to achieve this massive participation from the youth in the American history. This phenomenon itself explains that the participation of the American youth is extremely important in the politics and policy making. While the old and experienced do make well-thought policies, the policies almost usually miss to hit the bull’s eye with the youths. More informed and interested youth would mean that they follow the agendas served by the different political parties. While some would decide to stand for competing themselves, others would be well aware of which policies make for better selection, while promoting youth and necessities to establish the youth economically and fundamentally in the country. Deciding for themselves and choosing what is best, the youth can definitely bring about a revolution of sorts, inviting new thinking and strategies, while dispersing the old thought processes. As Lerner and Steinberg cited, “research on adolescents theories about inequality suggests that their evolving political views are concordant with their own values and worldviews and those emphasized in their families.” At present, there are several initiatives being launched by the government and private enterprises in order to reclaim the American youth and inspire interest in their right to voting. It is believed by several researchers and political pundits that a way to involving the youth to participate in politics is voting. Early voting instillation will help further the political interest of the youth and in turn, enhance their political participation. In order to dot he same, initiatives launched are being showcased on channels like MTV that attract the maximum youth viewership. Besides, some of the online initiatives have also seen surfacing amongst the youth networking sites such as “Facebook” (Ryan Dashek, 2008). Conclusion From the above study, it has been fruitfully noted that a simple involvement of the youth in politics in the way of voting can be held as fruitful. Many psychologists and political analysts quoted above have also assessed the situation and come to the same conclusion. Te participation of the youth I policy making holds extreme importance in order to bring a revolution in the ideologies presented. Besides, policies made by the policy makers without keeping the youth in mind can render some serious trouble to the youth, as was obviously seen in the last term of the government headed by President George W. Bush. Therefore, politics and youth, when working together, would bring about a prosperous nation, where youth and adults enjoy their worlds in a similar fashion, sharing an equal platform! References: Brown B.B., Larson R, Saraswati T. S.. "The Worlds Youth: Adolescence in Eight Regions of the Globe." Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Ed Henry, News Desk. "Obama will do whats necessary to fix economy, aide says." CNN, November 23, 2008. Msnbc.com News Services. "Obama: U.S. faces greatest economic challenge." MSN, November 9, 2008. Richard M. Lerner, Laurence Steinberg. "Handbook of Adolescent Psychology." by John Wiley and Sons, 2004. Russell J. Dalton. "The Good Citizen: How a Younger Generation is Reshaping American Politics." CQ Press, 2007. Ryan Dashek. "Apathy is unacceptable for American youth vote." The Daily Cardinal , February 18, 2008. The Freechild Project. "Youth Action for Peace and Nonviolence." 2008. Extracted from: http://www.freechild.org/politics.htm Read More