Resolution Foundation Podcasts

The political context in which people grow up can play a hugely influential role in how that age cohort participate in democracy. From the dominance of different political parties and prevalence of strikes and protests, to the distribution of information and ideas through social media, the society people are raised in affects the ways in which they interact with politicians and political ideas. Maintaining an informed and engaged electorate in the decades to come requires grappling with these historical shifts and their implications for democratic governance. Does the historical context of when a generation comes of age affect their political engagement? Are older generations, for example, who came of age in a period when elections were fundamental to the existence of democratic government, more likely to engage with political parties? What about younger generations coming of age in the historical moments that followed? And what can this tell us about how democratic governance and political participation coul