Political interest of adolescents before and after lowering the voting age: the case of Austria
Political interest of adolescents before and after lowering the voting age: the case of Austria
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降低投票年龄前后青少年的政治兴趣：奥地利的案例
DOI：
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发表时间：
2013
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
Martina Zandonella
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Eva Zeglovits;Martina Zandonella
据说年轻人对政治不感兴趣。青少年对政治缺乏兴趣被用来作为反对降低投票年龄的理由。但是，如果一个人没有资格投票，他或她为什么要对政治感兴趣呢？在本文中，我们使用横断面调查数据，研究了16岁和17岁的奥地利人在将投票年龄降至16岁之前和之后的政治利益差异。这样做，我们捕获了政治利益的广泛概念，包括情境和个人利益。我们观察到，在降低投票年龄后，16岁和17岁的政治兴趣更高。此外，政治兴趣决定因素的模式也发生了变化：研究结果表明，父母在影响尚未获得选举权的年轻人的政治兴趣方面发挥着至关重要的作用。学校对年轻人政治兴趣的影响出现在投票年龄降低之后。在奥地利特定的社会和情境背景下，年轻人政治兴趣的发展似乎与选举权的“生活事件”有关。
Young people are said to be uninterested in politics. This lack of political interest among adolescents has been used as an argument against lowering the voting age. But why should someone be interested in politics if he or she is not eligible to vote? In this paper, we examine the differences in political interest of 16- and 17-year-old Austrians before and after lowering the voting age to 16, using cross-sectional survey data. Doing so, we capture a broad concept of political interest, including situational and individual interest. We observe that political interest of 16- and 17-year-olds was higher after lowering the voting age. In addition, the patterns concerning the determinants of political interest changed as well: study findings indicate that parents were of utmost importance in influencing political interest of young people who were not yet enfranchised. The impact of schools on political interest among young people emerged after the voting age had been lowered. In the specific societal and situational context of Austria, the development of political interest among young people seems to be associated with the ‘life event’ of enfranchisement.