Young Policy Opinions and their Impact:

Abstract:

In today’s political sphere, the representation of social groups, especially the voices of young people, has sparked considerable debate. Movements such as Friday for the Future and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic have intensified discussions about the lack of representation of young people’s political concerns in decision-making. Yet, little is known about the actual impact of cohorts policy preferences on policy change. This study aims to contribute to this discourse by exploring how well young people’s policy preferences are recognized and reflected in policy-making processes. Specifically, it seeks to understand whether policy makers respond differently to the preferences of young people. To investigate to what extent, if any, policy makers are more responsive to the concerns and interests of older compared to younger members of society, recent public opinion and policy implementation data is combined. The expected outcomes of this project are twofold. First, it aims to provide insights into the complexities of political representation by shedding light on whether policy makers show different levels of responsiveness to the policy preferences of younger compared to older demographic groups. Second, it aims to make a substantive contribution to discussions on how to improve the inclusion and representation of young people in democratic systems. Preliminary analysis show that while there are substantial differences in policy preferences across cohorts there is no bias in responsiveness across cohorts.