Age, Generations, and Participation
Political scientists debate whether the Millennial generation is disengaging from politics in contemporary democracies. The ISSP surveys show that the generational decline in participation is largely limited to voting and other forms of partisan activity. At the same time, younger citizens are often more engaged in non-electoral activities, such as direct action, protest, and online participation. Time-series data for the United States disentangles the effects of life-cycle changes and generations. More recent generations display a clear decline in voting across the 1967–2014 period. In contrast, life-cycle increases in participation are more common for non-electoral activity. Both factors influence participation but in contrasting ways for different modes of action.