JICH: Does low level of youth political turnout mean less democracy?

Anna Menagarishvili (Tbilisi State University, Erasmus fellow)

According to numerous scientific studies, despite the political context across the world, young people’s political turn out has been significantly decreasing during the past decades, creating inequalities due to which, there has been a serious concern about putting democracy in danger. The aim of this paper is to question this position and theoretically demonstrate that the idea of democracy in contemporary times is not in danger, young people prefer to engage in alternative forms of political participation, are more skeptical about formal politics and more critical towards governing officials. Being engaged in non-traditional forms of political participation is the result of perceptions that elections and political parties are no longer the most relevant means for influencing those in power. Alternative ways of participation are issue-oriented and specific, which actually can contribute the process of democracy, if these various alternative ways of participation are heard and valued appropriately by political elites.