The Influence of the Economic Crisis on the Political Participation of Young Adults in Europe

The emergence of the economic crisis in 2008 led to the loss of millions of jobs in Europe. Indeed previous studies show that young Europeans have been hit harder by the economic crisis than adults. This situation caused mass protests in some European countries like Spain or Greece, where young people have been hit hardest by the crisis. At the same time researchers often postulate, that there is a lack of engagement of young adults in politics. There seems to be a discrepancy between this conclusion (lack of engagement) and the behavior of young adults in relation to the economic crisis (mass protests). Accordingly, the question arises what influence the economic crisis had on the political participation of young adults. This paper wants to examine in what form and to what extent the crisis had an influence in the political participation of young adults. It is therefore a question of examining the link between crisis-induced changes and political behavior. Thereof the data is examined with reference to the following key questions: Are there any crisis-induced changes in political behavior at all? Are the young adults withdrawing from participation in civil society or are they turning to non-institutionalized forms of political participation? The results of this study will be relevant for two reasons. First, it is a contribution to the scientific debate on whether young adults have a declining interest in participating in civil society. Second, it highlights the impact of crises on the political behavior of young adults, which so far has hardly been considered. Following the grievance theory the expectation would be, that grievances become the impetus for political mobilization. According to this theory grievances can be defined as feelings of dissatisfaction with important aspects of life. These can arise, for example, with respect to income, employment or living standards. The idea is that such personal dissatisfaction causes individuals to express their dissatisfaction and thus stimulates political participation. Within the present study it is therefore assumed, that the economic crisis led to the occurrence of grievances that stimulate political behavior. Using data from the European Social Survey, the general trend for the connection between the effects of the crisis on the political participation of young adults is investigated. This dataset allows comparison over time and between different countries. Specifically, the behavior before the economic crisis is compared with the behavior at the beginning and after the economic crisis. The selected countries differ in the extent to which young adults were hit by the crisis. Countries with a high youth unemployment rate (e.g. Spain and Greece) are compared with countries with low youth unemployment rates (e.g. Germany). Finally, using this data makes it possible to compare the involvement in institutionalized (voting) and non-institutionalized forms (e.g. participation in legal demonstrations or activism within a political organization) of political participation.