Yes, young people support democracy, but a large educational gap remains visible
Even before secondary school, the educational gap hits mercilessly, and is particularly persistent, according to PhD candidate Laura Mulder. “Students in pre-vocational secondary education have less support for democracy than students in pre-university education.”
While politics in large parts of the world have been taking on an increasingly authoritarian stance over the past few years, Dutch young people still seem to have an undiminished love for democracy, according to research by PhD candidate Laura Mulder. On Thursday 20 March, she will defend her dissertation Mind the gap! Inequalities in democratic support among adolescents. Folia spoke with her.
So the democratic ethos of Dutch young people is in good shape?
“That’s right. I looked at various data sources on young people of secondary school age, i.e. 12 to 18 years old, and it appears that a large majority of 84 percent believe that democracy is the best form of government. Young people also show an enormous amount of support for democratic values such as freedom, equality and majority decision-making on average.”
“In general, young people therefore reject alternative forms of government. A small proportion has a preference for implementing technocratic or autocratic elements, but within the boundaries of democracy.”
So all is well?
“The greatest concern is not the level of support for democracy, but the inequalities that the research reveals. At the age of 12, we see a persistent education gap, with young people in HAVO (higher general secondary education) or VWO (pre-university education) being considerably more involved in politics than VMBO (pre-vocational secondary education) students. For example, if we look at voting intentions, 51 percent of Vmbo students say they intend to vote when they are older, compared to 76 percent of Vwo students. We see these kinds of major differences in almost every element of the study.”
“So this distinction already exists at a very young age, and cannot be caused by the type of education alone. The origin of these differences must therefore lie before secondary school.”
Does that mean it’s in the home situation?
“The fact that there are such large differences in democratic support before any differentiation has been made in education, at least implies that something is going on in the social background. This could be the home situation or differences at primary school. In some families, children are introduced to politics from an early age, they are taken to the polling booth and politics is discussed at the dinner table, while in other families the idea is conveyed that politics is not for ‘our kind of people’, that politicians are just in it for the money and that voting is pointless. If children from the second type of family vote less often, this has negative consequences for that group.”
What effects does this have?
“Groups that are less involved in democracy, and therefore do not vote, are less well represented. As a result, democracy does not work for them, and their interests are not represented.”
Can education do anything about this?
“In my research I also looked at the effect of the one-day citizenship programme of ProDemos, and it appears that one such day has a lasting influence on the political knowledge of young people. It does appear difficult to reduce the inequalities, but perhaps that is not to be expected from a one-day programme.”
How much does it actually mean when a 13-year-old indicates that they support democracy?
“Children of that age are really seriously engaged in political issues, just not yet in our terms. That is why I do not use complicated words like “form of government” or “politicians”, but ask about these subjects in understandable language. They are certainly engaged in political issues, but they do not label them as “political”. They sometimes associate the term politics with something boring, but by asking clever questions it turns out that young people are in fact concerned with it.”
Yet the disparities are still large. Where can the most progress be made?
“I mention a number of options in my thesis. For example, citizenship education could be intensified and citizenship programmes could be better integrated into the curriculum. For example, by not only visiting the House of Representatives, but also a town hall or the court. This way, children can get a taste of these democratic institutions at different times. In order to bridge the gap, it is especially important to focus on pupils in pre-vocational secondary education and senior secondary vocational education. They benefit most from citizenship education, but receive it the least.”
“Another interesting idea is to lower the voting age. It is currently 18, of course, which is the age at which many pupils have left secondary school. If you lower that age, schools can also focus on elections in a much more direct way and involve young people in the process of voting for the first time. Voting for the first time appears to be very important in making voting a habit.”
