Rethinking digital-age democracy to harness the activism of youth.

OVERVIEW

​Half the world’s population is under 30. The average age of leaders is 62. Young people are still voting (though their participation still lags behind other age groups), but they are also expressing themselves elsewhere than the ballot box. Their participation in demonstrations and signing petitions has increased, perhaps channeling their political energies into forms of activism that they see as more impactful, immediate or accessible than more formal channels of engagement. They are acting for themselves if governments fail them. They get their news from the internet, while social media, even gaming platforms, has vastly expanded their arena for political engagement and activism, helping mobilise originally non-political networks for political causes. If the citizens of the future are taking democracy to new spheres, what does that mean for the future of democracy and popular representation?

SIGNALS

Two-thirds of people worldwide believe they have little influence over their government’s decisions (and in most OECD countries, young people feel that even more strongly). 64% of people feel that politicians don’t care156 about people like them. The 18-34 age group is most disillusioned with democracy, worldwide. These perceptions may partly account for young people’s limited participation in traditional democratic mechanisms. 68% of young people in OECD countries voted, compared to 85% of people aged 54+. Fewer than 40% of India’s youngest voters registered to vote in the 2024 general election. Young Africans are less likely to participate in traditional forms of politics like voting (though that declines in older people, too).

But young people are not apathetic or uninterested in politics, even if they are expressing themselves in less “institutionalized” ways. Young students across the world recognize governance as a critical issue to be solved. Young Africans, for example, are more likely than all other age groups to join ”elite challenging” activities such as protests. University students worldwide are protesting at the war in Gaza. Groups created around sports or entertainment are taking up political causes; “ultra” football fans in the Arab world, renowned for fanatical support of their teams, mobilized against dictatorships in the Arab spring. K-pop fans in South Korea led a protest against building a new coal-fired power plant near a famous beach. Young people are even protesting through socially coordinated inaction, as China’s young people are lying flat and workers worldwide are quiet quitting.

Digital networks have dramatically expanded the channels of communication. Video games are growing as a vehicle for political participation and opinion-shaping among young people. In Brazil, where 70% of people with access to electronic devices spend 2 ½ hours gaming every day, young people are becoming politically aware through their online gaming communities. Teens worldwide are joining protests on gaming platform Roblox. And while some people wonder how far reposts and retweets amount to active political engagement, young people are actually more likely to say that social media has advanced their democracy.

SO WHAT FOR DEVELOPMENT?

The peaceful election of Senegal’s new young president is a sign of hope of the strength of democratic institutions. Electing a leader from the same generation as many voters inspires young people that what was the preserve of the old is now open to the young.

Yet to address people’s sense of powerlessness, democracies need to provide more active opportunities for people to have their say and be able to influence decisions – more often than a vote every four to five years. There’s no shortage of imaginative ideas for how to do this. The Ministry of Imagination Manifesto, released in 2024 as half the world prepared to vote, is a collection of ambitious, possibility-infused policies for a positive future. It includes a kind of civic version of jury service, where everyone can join a citizens’ assembly to reimagine and plan local or national policies. Trusted, local spaces can offer more opportunities than national political processes for citizens to participate and drive change towards sustainable development.

Does citizen-led political action undermine the idea of formal democracy, or support it? When citizens have to fix what’s broken – like private companies paying to keep traffic lights operating in Johannesburg – that relieves the pressure on governments.  How does that alter the social contract? 

Or why not automate democracy? Cesar Hidalgo’s Augmented Democracy would let citizens create personalized AI representatives (digital twins) that participate directly in democratic decisions, augmenting citizens’ ability to make decisions by providing information, or by making decisions on their behalf. The idea is not to replace democracy, but to expand people’s capacity to participate in it. Such innovations might help make policy decisions more intergenerationally aware, by including in the decision-making process more varied and longer-term perspectives.