2
Political scientists have documented well that over the past three decades levels of
political interest, knowledge, and activity among young people have generally been on
the decline. It has been well-documented in a number of studies that the youth of today
are among the most politically apathetic of any generation (Lopez and Kirby 2003; The
Institute of Politics 2002; Sax, Astin, Korn and Mahoney 1998). While young people
volunteer in their communities at high rates, over the past couple of decades fewer than
ever express an interest in the political world (Mann 1999; The Institute of Politics 2002).
Despite some recent positive signs in the form of an increase in political interest in youth
post 9-11, survey data from a study of the political attitudes of a national random sample
of over 300,000 college freshmen collected by the Higher Education Research Institute
for the past forty years or so reveal disturbing trends in the political attitudes of young
people (Higher Education Research Institute 2005; 2000). Levels of political knowledge
of basic facts about the political system remain low among youth and voter turnout,
although up in terms of total number of youth voting this past election, remains
proportionately low among youth relative to the past and to the adult population (Center
for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement 2004; MacManus
1996; Delli Carpini and Keeter 1996). Rahn and Transue (1998), using Monitoring the
Future
1
data, show that social trust among high school seniors also has declined
significantly over the past twenty years. Perhaps most disturbing, while social trust and
political engagement have been declining in all age groups, the decline in social trust and
1
Monitoring the Future is a study carried out by the Institute for Social Research at the
University of Michigan. High school seniors have been surveyed every
year since 1975
in an attempt to assess changes in attitudes and behaviors of young people over time.
Convention