Millennials get little satisfaction from democracy - Cambridge study

[sl8]

https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-youth/millennials-get-little-satisfaction-from-democracy-cambridge-study-idUKKBN2742YE

WORLD NEWS
OCTOBER 19, 2020 7:02 PM
UPDATED 6 HOURS AGO

Millennials get little satisfaction from democracy - Cambridge study

By Reuters Staff

LONDON (Reuters) - Young people are less satisfied with democracy and more disillusioned than at any other time in the past century, especially in Europe, North America, Africa and Australia, a study by the University of Cambridge has found.

Millennials, or those born between 1981 and 1996, are more disillusioned than Generation X, those born between 1965 and 1981, or Baby Boomers born between 1944 and 1964 and the Interwar Generation of 1918-1943.

“Across the world, younger generations are not only more dissatisfied with democratic performance than the old, but also more discontented than previous generations at similar life stages,” the Cambridge study found.

[...]

===========================


Report (pdf) : https://www.cam.ac.uk/system/files/report2020_003.pdf

Article :
https://www.cam.ac.uk/stories/dissatisfactiondemocracy

Global dissatisfaction with democracy at a record high

The first report from the new Centre for the Future of Democracy at the University of Cambridge.

Story: Fred Lewsey

Dissatisfaction with democratic politics among citizens of developed* countries has increased from a third to half of all individuals over the last quarter of a century, according to the largest dataset ever created on global attitudes to democracy.

In fact, researchers found that across the planet – from Europe to Africa, as well as Asia, Australasia, both Americas and the Middle East – the share of individuals who say they are “dissatisfied” with democracy has jumped significantly since the mid-1990s: from 47.9% to 57.5%.

The research team, from the University of Cambridge’s new Centre for the Future of Democracy, say that the year 2019 “represents the highest level of democratic discontent on record”. Detailed stocktaking of global political sentiment began in 1995.

The report used a unique dataset of more than 4 million people. It combines over 25 international survey projects covering 154 countries between 1995 and 2020, with some dating back as far as 1973, and includes new cross-country surveys commissioned from polling firm YouGov.

[...]

[beachbumbob]

1. perhaps a few weeks in Somalia would help?

[Jspur]

24. I'm one of the older millenials at age 37

and I was born and raised in the US while my parents were immigrants from India. I have been to India several times in my lifetime. One thing I have observed down there is there is great wealth inequality which has resulted in a corrupt democracy in which the government only serves the rich. The politicians are all owned by rich people and don't do anything to help out regular people. The irony is the US has become a lot like India the last 20 years. We have cities like LA whose homeless crisis looks just like what you see everyday in the streets of India. I never thought it was possible for that type of stuff to happen in the US. Sometimes I laugh when I think about how my parents fled from India to escape a corrupt democracy but only to end up in a country that is now trying to emulate India's corrupt democracy.

A lot of millennials are starting to become apathetic because their lives are not getting better economically which in return will make them not believe in the current system. Also millennials are not really young anymore considering most of them are above 30 and they will be a few turning 40 next year so you can't chalk it up to them being young and immature.

[beachbumbob]

36. no similarity to the poverty in India and those in poverty in the US

[Jspur]

37. Obviously we are not there yet when it comes to poverty but

with another 20 years of great wealth inequality increasing we will get there. Anyways your Somalia statement was lame and ignorant.

[Lancero]

61. Extremely ignorant since Somalia is a Democracy too.

[JI7]

38. There are more homeless in LA becsuse of the weather

[Jspur]

41. It's a combination of a few things

which is inequality,weather, and states sending their homeless to LA. Think about if these states could not send their homeless populations to CA then you would see an increase homelessness in cities across the country. CA to me is a dumping ground for states to use to hide their homelessness from the rest of the country.

[myccrider]

43. Good points.

I don’t think it’s "democracy" that Millennials and younger generations are unhappy with, it’s instead "the current system", which is dominated by crony capitalism and growing income inequality.

I don’t know exactly what questions were asked on these surveys, but I doubt these groups are clamoring for dictatorship or autocracy or similar political systems. They probably just want a government and economy that actually works for them.

IIRC, Princeton did a study a few years ago that showed that Congress doesn’t respond to the interests and opinions of the majority of the population, but bills/laws passed correlate closely with the interests of the monied class. Not surprising that people get frustrated and discouraged and become apathetic and/or angry.

[Jspur]

56. I agree with you that it's the current form of American Capitalism

that Millennials hate.

[Jspur]

25. I'm one of the older millenials at age 37

and I was born and raised in the US while my parents were immigrants from India. I have been to India several times in my lifetime. One thing I have observed down there is there is great wealth inequality which has resulted in a corrupt democracy in which the government only serves the rich. The politicians are all owned by rich people and don't do anything to help out regular people. The irony is the US has become a lot like India the last 20 years. We have cities like LA whose homeless crisis looks just like what you see everyday in the streets of India. I never thought it was possible for that type of stuff to happen in the US. Sometimes I laugh when I think about how my parents fled from India to escape a corrupt democracy but only to end up in a country that is now trying to emulate India's corrupt democracy.

A lot of millennials are starting to become apathetic because their lives are not getting better economically which in return will make them not believe in the current system. Also millennials are not really young anymore considering most of them are above 30 and they will be a few turning 40 next year so you can't chalk it up to them being young and immature. Your Somalia comment was lame and ignorant.

[Backseat Driver]

34. Oops, you doubled-down, LOL! Welcome, anyway!

[Bettie]

2. Why would they be satisfied?

They don't even have a seat at the table.

They just get told over and over "What you want will NEVER happen, sit down and shut up. No one cares what you think."

[Sherman A1]

5. Precisely

[Bettie]

8. I also note

that there are already several replies mocking them.

[Sherman A1]

11. I saw them before I responded to your post

And thought it was all a very sad commentary.

[bronxiteforever]

12. +100 Absolutely. Plus climate change will impact

them more than other older generations.

[mountain grammy]

19. Exactly!

[RobinA]

26. I Don't Know What

this means. What table do they not have a seat at that the rest of us do?

[malaise]

50. THIS

is the truth

[dixiechiken1]

3. Poor babies.

[Celerity]

23. your comment's dodgy as hell, so typical of some of the Millennial-bash dross on here I see here far

too often.

You do realise that the oldest Millennials turn 40 years old in 10 weeks? I am sure they love being condescendingly called 'babies', especially as they have had to deal (and will have to deal the rest of their lives) with bollocks the caused by the Gens before them, especially starting with the Boomers. The very youngest Gen Xers could not even vote in federal elections until 2000, although most could by 1998, and they sure as hell did not carry Reagan (in 1984 for the very oldest Xers, less than 2 years of them) Bush Jr (twice) and Trump over the line.







No wonder the older Millennials are jaded as fuck. Their entire formulative years, (then high school, college, and after) lives for the most part have been bombed out with

1991 1st Gulf War
1992-1999 continuous shitstorms in the Balkans, continued bombing in Iraq
1993-1999 Dot Com Boom, a positive, BUT which they entirely missed out on (other than possible inheritances)
1994 Gringrich Revolution Rethug Take-over, plus later on, rot like NAFTA, the Telecommunications Act of 1996, as well as the odious repeal of Glass-Steagall and the even worse Commodities Futures Modernization Act of 2000 (the last two laid the ground for the 2007-11 financial crisis and its after-shocks)
1995 Oklahoma City Bombing
December 19, 1998 to February 12, 1999 The Clinton impeachment crisis
2000 Dot Com Crash and then a recession
2000 Bush steals the election
2001 9/11
2002 Patriot Act/AUMF the Afghan invasion (which still goes on)
2003 onwards 2nd Iraq invasion
2004 Bush likely steals the election again
2004-2006/2007, a brief respite (economically), but one fuelled by massive derivative fraud and insane housing bubbles
2007-2011 massive global financial crisis and its after-effect shock-waves
2011 Libyan murder war
2011 to present, Syrian conflict (massive impact here in Europe)
2012-2015 another brief respite as Obama repairs the economy and gets it climbing again
June 16, 2015, the nightmarish age of Trump begins with his escalator ride down in Trump tower
December 2019 onwards, the global, crushing COVID-19 pandemic

Plus the whole time, insane increases in housing costs, medical/healthcare costs, and education costs, leaving many in life-wrecking financial shape.

[Jspur]

35. As a 37 year old millenial you did a great job summarizing

my frustration with this country by illustrating it in your timeline. I have to say though the events of the 90's didn't bother me considering I felt as a whole growing up during the period that things were getting better. The 90's economic boom gave my peers and myself the illusion this country had endless opportunities in which you could be successful and thrive. The cracks in my belief started to happen when Bush won in '00 and then when 9/11 happened. I started to lose faith but Obama getting elected in '08 gave me hope but that vanished away after the republicans stopped him from doing great things. Obama's presidency made millennials apathetic. Not to say it was Obama's fault but after we saw what the republicans did to stop him it was very defeating. The majority of millennials hate Trump but the mentality I get from them now is "He's a pos but what's the point of voting. No one is willing to help us anyways."

[Bettie]

57. Right?

And now, they are adults, looking at their Boomer parents who did well and have pensions and a possibility of retirement.

They see a world where Social Security may not even be there for them, many are contract employees with no benefits and certainly no 401K which they can't afford to put money into anyway...it is maddening and I'm not even a millennial.

Why don't they vote? Because they are told constantly by the "elders" that they don't matter and their voices aren't wanted. Yeah, they want their votes, but after that, they want them to sit down and shut up and stop asking for help, for progress, for anything other than one step forward two or three back every ten or so years.

[lagomorph777]

4. How would they know? They've never seen Democracy.

[Newest Reality]

7. Good point ;)

You could call this an oligarchy in drag.

[uriel1972]

13. exactly the problem...

[Hugin]

18. +1

We need to do something about it, too.

I like the Millennials. They've always taken very good care of me and sometimes they even laugh at my stupid jokes.

[rockfordfile]

45. I agree

[Blues Heron]

6. Use it or lose it

[JCMach1]

9. Read dissatisfied with status quo

I don't buy the anti-democracy spin on this.

[Catcar]

10. So let's get this straight, the more the income differential between the uber rich and us...

the more disenfranchised and pessimistic of the system and the future the younger generations become? Hmmm, interesting. Who'd a thunk it? People not wanting to be indentured tools to the privileged ones...like Donald Trump.

[NRaleighLiberal]

14. they are completely removed from draft-fed wars. their paradigm

is completely different from boomers. each generation has to grapple with history and events from their own experiential pov.

[Celerity]

21. Only the first 8 or so years of the boomers were even eligible for the draft, as is

ended in January 1973. And the wars of empire have continued on just fine without a draft.

Another thing that irks me is the boomer claim that they were the vanguard for the civil right movement when none of them could even vote in the federal elections during the truly heavy lifting part of it (the 15 year period of 1953 to 1967). The first federal election the very oldest boomers (and then it was less than 3 years of them, a very, very small part, the ones born in 1945 (if you count being 1945 born as a boomer, which is debatable, and only is usually used to make the Boomer Gen an even 20 years, 45-64), 1946 and most of 1947) could even vote in was 1968. The federal voting age was not lowered to 18 until July 1, 1971, and it wasn't until 1984 that every single boomer could vote in federal elections (1982 was almost there, as only the ones born November 3rd to December 31st, 1964 could not vote, Kamala Harris, a very tail-end boomer/Generation Jones, made it in 1982 by 13 days, as she was born October 20th, 1964, with the election occurring on November 2nd, 1982).

[sl8]

22. Are you speaking of just the Americans or everyone in the report?

[Ilsa]

15. I was listening to a 2 year old interview w Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks (UK)

on a series on morality. Maybe it was an update on a similar study, but Gen. K and millennials were more distrustful of Capitalism.

I am surprised that they are sissatisfied with democracy.

[Maeve]

16. My kids are Millennials

They have to work more than one job to make a decent living, they can't afford to buy a home, they have seen the older generations support stupid and corrupt politicians and they get told to suck it up by the people who should be on their side....why SHOULD they believe in democracy?

[haele]

17. So, what options do they -and we -have

I know, the Boomers fucked everything up. Just means the system needs fixing, not that Democracy in general is bad. The alternatives are all generally untenable for everyone who doesn't have the money to buy their way into power or maintain private security.
Without democratic institutions, they would really learn what "making it through life on your own hard work" entails. And it isn't very pretty for most people...

Haele

[ret5hd]

20. My bet is that if you really drilled down, that when they (the millennials and/or the questioners)..

refer to "democracy" what is really meant is "capitalism". Because of our national lingo and lack of political and economic education many people believe that capitalism (an economic system) IS democracy (a political system) when in fact they are two distinct and separate things.

[Jspur]

29. As an older millennial you hit the nail on the

thread. As a generation we don't believe in the current capitalistic system since it hasn't benefited us. All we see is a system which has jacked up costs at astronomical increases in college,housing,health care, cars while we never had wages to match these increases.

[smirkymonkey]

55. +1000

[Sympthsical]

27. Whenever we highlight problems, it's, "You just want free stuff!"

Not helpful that a nice chunk of our own side gets in on this cant.

I’m approaching middle age. I have a career. I’m one of the very few of my peers who owns a home. I watch some of them still paying student debt. Still unable to afford health care deductibles. Still renting small apartments because they’re priced out entirely from the market.

“Free stuff!”

People like Sanders don’t gain traction in a vacuum.

We very much perceive those who came before as having pulled the ladder up behind them. Then everyone’s shocked we’re not so happy, that a third party gets votes.

People who are surprised have dismissively not paid attention.

[Jspur]

31. Agreed I'm in the same boat as you.

I'm 37 and I'm pretty sure you are in the same age range as me. I definitely hate hearing the free stuff garbage from these idiots. It makes my blood boil. I have seen houses in my area that were 100K as a kid now cost 300-400k and keep in mind I live in NC not CA/NY where this would be considered a great deal. A lot of people I grew up with are now priced out of buying a home due to these ridiculous price increases.

I have a good friend of mine whose life has always been a struggle but hes always willed himself to get through it. This guy during his early 20's got kicked out of his mom's house and was homeless for a year. He decided then to go to graduate school and got a degree in IT at the age of 28. The last 5 years his life had gotten a lot better with his career and him making good money. He started at 60K when he graduated college and then ended up at 100K at the start of this year. It seemed like things were finally going his way but a month ago Citi laid him off. Now he's currently living with his Uncle. My friend right now is suicidal. He's told me a few times he doesn't even know what's the point of living if he's always going to have to deal with this crap. My friend is a hardcore democrat and has voted democrat his whole entire life but right now he doesn't even want to vote anymore. He said to me the other day "There is no point anymore. Biden or Trump can't help me. I don't see how either will make my life better."

This is a serious crisis millennial are going through. Everybody on DU should be concerned about this. My fear is that our generation is going to become apathetic which benefits and enables right wing authoritarianism.

[marmar]

28. I think it's the lack of democracy they're dissatisfied with.

Specious wording in this study.

[GoCubsGo]

30. How many of these "disillusioned" Millenials actually participate in democracy?

What percentage of them actually vote in every election?

[Thyla]

33. In Australia, above 90 percent.

Mandatory voting though.
Can´t speak meaningfully about other nations mentioned.

[rockfordfile]

48. I would say a number of them are in contact with Russian propaganda

[GoCubsGo]

60. That doesn't answer my question.

How many of them get out and vote?

[Thyla]

32. Two party politics and the apathy of those who came before

To not instigate meaningful change.
Even if in the countries mentioned above they have multiple, genuine voting options at the end of the day it´s still two party politics who continue on with the same old crap.

I´ve been pissing my vote against a wall for years, it´s ultimately a meaningless vote in my juridiction and it´s depressing but I´ll still do it because I don´t believe in the lesser of two evils BS.

[aidbo]

39. This study by some people at Princeton could help explain the 'why'.

https://represent.us/action/no-the-problem/

“The preferences of the average American appear to have only a miniscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy.”

One thing that does have an influence? Money. While the opinions of the bottom 90% of income earners in America have a “statistically non-significant impact,” economic elites, business interests, and people who can afford lobbyists still carry major influence.

[Baclava]

40. Two years mandatory government service at age 18. See the world, out of your mom's basement, yep

[Ron Obvious]

42. I love the idea

But I have to admit, I would have so hated and detested that at the age of 18 myself. I love it now, but seriously not because I'm well past that age, but because most 18 year-olds don't know anything yet and would benefit from the perspective.

Democracy would benefit.

[sl8]

44. I doubt most countries' militaries get to see the world. n/t

[Baclava]

46. I didn't say anything about joining the military, humanitarian missions, all over the world

[sl8]

49. You're right.

Do many 3rd world countries have international service programs?

I have my doubts, but I don't know.

[Baclava]

52. I don't know but there are hundreds of international volunteer missions going on all the time

[Withywindle]

54. You know most Millennials are in their 30s now, right?

Talking about what 18-year-olds should do - an entirely different generation - really isn't relevant.

Millennials - again, we're talking about people who are 25-39, roughly, many of whom have kids of their own now - have actually a fairly simple and straightforward problem: wages that have been stagnant for decades while cost of living has only gone up.

If the minimum wage were to have the same buying power that it had in the 1970s, it would be $22-$25 an hour, not $7.25 in many states and $15 in others. There is NO state where a full-time worker making minimum wage can afford an apartment all on their own.

They see the intense resistance to even a basic, band-aid-on-broken-leg change like raising the MW to $15 federally, and they feel that no one in politics - or at least, not enough people to make a difference - are really in their corner and understand their needs.

I'm Gen X. Back when I was working (thanks, COVID) there were a lot of Millennials in my job. I did not know ONE of them who had that job as their only job. Not one. They all had a side hustle. They were all exhausted all the time, because they would just leave this job and then go to another one. That's not sustainable, and it's not fair.

[Jspur]

58. Agreed I'm 37 and I laugh when a lot of people

believe millennials are still young 18-22 year olds. Housing has skyrocketed all across the country and like you said wages haven't adjusted. When I graduated from college in '06 rent where I lived in NC was only 650 dollars a month for a 1 bedroom apartment. Now it has doubled to 1200-1300 a month.

[Jspur]

59. Agreed we should send these kids to Western Countries that

have social safety nets and have them compare their life to the citizens of the Western Countries.

[rockfordfile]

47. UK study about democracy?

[msongs]

51. when is apple coming out with a new iphone model? nt