Youth Political Representation Research Network

Very interesting findings! This is probably also something of interest for everybody on youthpolrep

Just like me? Testing descriptive attributes as voting heuristics The lack of candidate diversity and the descriptive under-representation of groups such as women and young people in parliaments is a recurring concer…

Very interesting new publication by Leonie Rettig and @lukasisermann.com on descriptive attributes as voting heuristics - specifically age and gender:

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

We have just updated our bibliography to include recently published works :) Let us know if we missed something!

Legislators talk less about the future as they age | The Journal of Politics: Vol 0, No ja

NEW ARTICLE: @palesl.bsky.social, Vesa Koskimaa and I have an letter out in JOP, "Politicians talk less about the future as they age" doi.org/10.1086/739406 (1/10)

📢 Publication Alert!

I am excited to share that I published my paper on Substantive Youth Representation in German Politics. 📄 You can find my paper here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09644008.2025.2584401 (1/7)

Do Young MPs Represent Young Voters? A Quantitative Text Analysis of Substantive Youth Representation in the Bundestag Globally, parliaments are dominated by middle-aged lawmakers, leading to descriptive underrepresentation of young adults in national legislatures. Recent research has begun to analyse the causes of...

New publication on #substantive #youthpolrep in the German Bundestag by @robrentrop.bsky.social :

doi.org/10.1080/0964...

Just a short reminder of our bibliography. Which works are still missing? 🤗

Call for Abstracts: Together with @kirareneekurz.bsky.social, I'm editing a @cogitatiopag.bsky.social Issue on #YouthWings in #Europe! 🤓 We especially invite contributions focusing on countries in Central, Eastern & Southern Europe. Feel free to get in touch! www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandg...

*generations

Ghosted by politics? Young generations and the crisis of representation in Italy This study investigates generational inequalities in perceived political representation in Italy. Drawing on original survey data (N = 1,004), we construct a Representation Index based on three sal...

New publication on the perceived substantive representation of younger generation in Italy:

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

It is followed by a piece by @niklasbolin.bsky.social :

#Political parties: bridging divides between youth and political institutions - European Political Science As a reaction to the COVID- 19 pandemic and the wave of global social justice protests in 2020, Generation Z (born 1997–2012)0 F feels an intensified obligation to get involved in politics, resulting in unprecedented youth activism. Gen Z is more politically active than previous generations of youth, partly due to this generation’s emergence as “digital natives.” An underlying theme motivating Gen Z activism is their affinity for addressing social justice issues through civic engagement. But do politically active young people concerned with social justice self-identify as being members of political parties? Or is their activism occurring predominantly online and in the streets? This article conducts an exploratory analysis to investigate whether youth bridge their social consciousness and activism with deliberative democracy, notably by joining political parties. By looking at youth activism and party membership across 46 countries, I find that political activism online exhibits some connection to party membership among young people. Understanding the connection between young people’s “chosen” forms of participation and formal institutions can provide insights into how online activism can break down barriers between youth and political institutions.

The next article by Kirstie Dobbs looks at the so-called generation Z and the likelihood of this generation joining political parties:

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

The introduction is followed by a piece from @karinakosped.bsky.social

@epsjournal.bsky.social has just published the articles of a special issue on "Political parties and youth’s political (under) representation", with an introduction by Daniel Stockemer (@uottawa.ca )

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

🧵

How well are young people represented along the recruitment ladder? The pipeline problem for the Danish youth is within parties, since they are eager to stand for election and well represented at the parliamentary level. New article out in @ecpr.bsky.social's EPS. Open access: rdcu.be/eIiM1.

Want to get an overview of research on #youthpolrep?

We have started a 💥thematically sorted bibliography💥 on our website!

Let us know, if there are publications still missing 🤗

Dear #youthpolrep colleagues and friends, I’m excited to invite you to my thesis defence - online or in person at EUI! 🎓✨
Endless thanks to @simonhix.bsky.social and Aksel Sundström for guiding me to the PhD finish line 🥳

www.eui.eu/events?id=57...

New piece on age-based differences in MPs' representation styles by @dienerjulius.bsky.social!

Why Does a Legislator’s Age Matter? Re-Conceptualising Youth Representation Representation of young adults in legislatures has been the subject of increasing empirical study, with a growing number of studies addressing the causes of low rates of youth representation. While...

🚨New Publication🚨

Interesting piece on why a legislator’s age matters:

@wigginton.ca re-conceptualizes youth representation in @repjournal.bsky.social

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

#youthpolrep

Global Youth Participation Index The GYPI is the first global tool measuring youth participation. Click to explore!

This week the GLOBAL YOUTH PARTICIPATION INDEX went online.

It's a great resource mot only for research on participation, but also for looking into representation!

gypi.epd.eu

Featuring work by @kirareneekurz.bsky.social, Kamila Kolodziejczyk, Daniel Stockemer, @dienerjulius.bsky.social, @danschindler.bsky.social and @hallehellmann.bsky.social.

The upcoming conference of the @sgparliaments.bsky.social in Barcelona will also feature a panel focusing on young parliamentarians!

Come by if you are around :) #sgop25

Global Youth Participation Index The GYPI is the first global tool measuring youth participation. Click to explore!

This week the GLOBAL YOUTH PARTICIPATION INDEX went online.

It's a great resource mot only for research on participation, but also for looking into representation!

gypi.epd.eu

They (don’t) really care about us: youth representation in Portuguese political parties - European Political Science Political parties rely on youth wings for the political representation and mobilisation of youth. This article examines the role of youth wings within political parties; youth wing members assess the ...

Super interesting new article on the role of youth wings in representing youth in Portugal by Carlos Jalali, Patrícia Silva & Edna Costa!

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

A perfect match! Entitled
“Reinventing Democracy for the 21st Century”, the 4th Global Conference on Parliamentary Studies today takes place in the cradle of democracy. 🇬🇷 Happy to present work with @kirareneekurz.bsky.social & @hallehellmann.bsky.social on youth representation. #youthpolrep

They (don’t) really care about us: youth representation in Portuguese political parties - European Political Science Political parties rely on youth wings for the political representation and mobilisation of youth. This article examines the role of youth wings within political parties; youth wing members assess the ...

Super interesting new article on the role of youth wings in representing youth in Portugal by Carlos Jalali, Patrícia Silva & Edna Costa!

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Only ~25% of leaders around the world used to be over 60. Today it is more than half of them.

Two density plots comparing age distributions. Top graph shows Republican senators (peak around age 70) vs. registered Republican voters (more evenly distributed, median age 57). Bottom graph shows Democratic senators (peak around age 70) vs. registered Democratic voters (more evenly distributed, median age 50). Vertical lines mark where half of each population falls. Democratic senators have a much larger age gap from their voters than Republicans do.

The Democratic Party’s age problem isn’t just bad, it’s much worse than Republicans’. Half of registered Democratic voters are under 50, yet half their senators are over 67. Despite claiming to represent the future, party leadership systematically blocks younger voices from gaining power.

**NEWS from the Network**

We have now also set up a website for YPRRN and while many things are still missing, you can already find a categorized bibliography on youth political representation!

youthpoliticalrep.wixsite.com/youth-politi...

Please let us know which works are still missing! 🤗

**NEWS from the Network**

We have now also set up a website for YPRRN and while many things are still missing, you can already find a categorized bibliography on youth political representation!

youthpoliticalrep.wixsite.com/youth-politi...

Please let us know which works are still missing! 🤗