ABSTRACT
The argument is put forth that citizens today, especially younger generations, seem to prefer participating in the extra-parliamentary realm, in non-hierarchical and informal networks. Though some researchers have interpreted these trends as reflecting growing scepticism and apathy (Henn et al. 2002), many others have called attention to the danger inherent in formulating oversimplified claims such as “the youth have become disillusioned with politics” (Zukin et al. 2005, pp. 118-189), and sometimes young people are heralded as innovators of politics, as creators of new forms of participation (O’Toole et al. 2003), it being claimed that young people engage in other forms of political participation in ways that orthodox research does not explore. Stolle and Hooghe (2011) found that contrary to some pessimistic assumptions, the shift of citizens from traditional forms of participation to emerging forms of participation has not led to an increase in political inequality on major socio-demographic dimensions.
