The Future of Democracy: Perception of Corruption and Youth Participation

Abstract

The majority of scholars are pointing out the alienation of young people from the political arena. Are young people really politically apathetic, disengaged and cynical? Do young people practice their given democratic rights as citizens? In order to find out the impact of perception of corruption on young people’s political participation, this research conducted statistical analyses with survey data that were collected in 2004 and 2014. This paper argues that perception of corruption generates mistrust which impacts the political participation of young people. A two-time period analysis and an age comparison analysis were conducted in order to find out how young people’s formal and informal political participation were influenced by lowered political trust. The research shows that young people are indeed a politically engaged population who are actively participating in politics via both formal and informal participation.This research is the first attempt in the field of political science to connect two major topics relating to democracy, which are the perception of corruption and youth participation.