Younger and more radical? How youth wing members see themselves and their parties

The ideological congruence, whether real or perceived, between party members and their elites has been the subject of many studies, yet the evidence for whether party members are more radical remains mixed. In this study, we examine a specific sub-set of party members, those who participate in the youth wings. Because of both their age and status as grassroots members, we might expect them to consider themselves further to the right or left of the party. Specifically, we ask: Do young people in youth wings see themselves as ideologically congruent with their senior parties? Drawing upon original membership surveys of members of twelve youth wings from the main centre-left and centre-right parties in Austria, Australia, Germany, Italy, Spain and Sweden, we identify different categories of young party members based upon how they perceive themselves ideologically in comparison to their senior parties. Furthermore, we explore whether these different groups vary significantly as regards their reasons for joining, levels of activism and future political ambitions.