ABSTRACT
Recent years have witnessed an increasing public and academic concern in western societies about the political participation of young adults. There is growing evidence that the turnout rate for 18-to 24-year-olds is decreasing from election to election. A Canadian study has shown that only about one quarter of the eligible 18-to 24-year-olds voted in the 2000 election (Pammett and LeDuc, 2003). In the UK a study by the Electoral Commission concluded that young people were half as likely to vote as older age groups and estimated that turnout among young people was lower in the 2005 general election than in 2001. According to a MORI study, it was 37 per cent compared to 39 per cent four years earlier (The Electoral Commission, 2005).
