Is Democracy Dying?
That was an anti-climax.
I gave them free sausages, plastered the tertiary centres with awesome posters (credit to Tim Ingle), waged a social media campaign to raise awareness, and even dressed up in an orange morph-suit for their amusement (my alter-ego as the mighty Electoral Man).
But they still didn’t vote.
I’m talking about young New Zealanders, who for a range of reasons didn’t make the trip to the polling booths in the recent general election.
Again, we activists who are so passionate about democracy haven’t been able to unearth the ‘missing million’ – that’s how many didn’t vote in 2011 and it was roughly the same outcome this election.
Twenty nine per cent of enrolled voters found something better to do and nine per cent of eligible voters didn’t enrol. Non-voters outnumbered the combined votes of the National Party, Act, United Future, Maori Party, Conservative Party, Internet-Mana and the Legalize Marijuana Party.
I have reason to believe that a massive chunk of these non-voters were young people, considering that in 2011 a quarter of the missing million were aged between 18-25.
So what the hell happened?
We can point the finger at Dirty Politics, Kim Dotcom, John Key’s spin doctors, and corrupt media coverage until we are blue in the face, but the lack of engagement in our democracy goes far deeper than these election phenomena (actually Key’s super spinners have been around for ages, same goes for corrupt media and probably dirty politics too).
I think young people just don’t give a shit about politics. And why should they? They don’t learn about it school and if they DO have political views they are normally hand-me downs from their parents – that is assuming their parents are politically literate themselves.
Mention politics to a young person and I bet the first thing that pops in their head is an image of two old dinosaurs in suits bickering about inflation or some other economical concept they have no understanding of. How are they supposed to relate to that?
Back to education – what is going to be more impactful on a young person’s life? Algebra and geometry or civics education? Shakespeare or the study of New Zealand democracy?
I’ve got nothing against Macbeth and quantum physicists but I do think some of our education priorities are a bit archaic. I’m not suggesting that maths shouldn’t be a core subject – I’m saying that without meaningful education around civic engagement, young people have no idea how to participate in our democracy.
If we want to maintain a responsible and functioning democracy where everyone is equipped to contribute then it’s on us to make sure future generations are encouraged to participate. This has to start in our schools.
But then there is still the issue of those young people who do have a clue about politics but don’t vote because they think the system is broken – an argument I find hard to disagree with.
When New Zealand elects a government draped in corruption, negative campaigning decides the outcome, big money buys votes, and a million people who could vote don’t – then our democracy is in critical condition.
Maybe I’m being naive, maybe this has been going on forever – but does that mean we should accept it, throw our hands up in the air and say “we’ll all politicians are bent anyway”? This is exactly why we are haemorrhaging democratic engagement among the youth.
Is there a better system out there? I don’t know. But for now we have this one and if we want it to represent all Kiwis, if that is a goal those on the left, right or smack in the middle aspire to, then it behoves us to ensure young Kiwis are given the best possible foundation to make good decisions – or in fact make a decision full stop.
General Election 2014 voter turnout.
Educated Ranting 