The article under review was written by Stoker et al. (2017) in an attempt to evaluate the political complacency levels across generational groups in Australia. The authors state that a surge in negativity related to mainstream democratic politics has been observed in a range of countries. In fact, this tendency appears to extend beyond specific policies and encompasses the modern institutes of democracy as a whole. According to Stoker et al. (2017), the younger generations are usually blamed for the emergence of the aforementioned tendency. However, the existing body of knowledge points toward mixed participatory behaviors among the youth in Australia. As such, the authors argue that the participatory gap between generations is not as significant as previously believed.
Overall, the primary idea behind the study consisted of disproving the presupposition, according to which young people were responsible for the global decline in democracy support. Stoker et al. (2017) engaged in this lasting discussion, introducing an alternative point of view. As the analysis suggests, the authors’ point of view is valid because similar tendencies were observed across all age groups. In a way, this study addresses a major research gap, which has appeared due to previous research’s focus on the youth. Ultimately, Stoker et al. (2017) felt the need to amend the one-sided view and introduce a global perspective on the problem. This way, the article addresses a large-scale issue of the decline in public support of democracy, which can prompt further research in this area.
Reference List
Stoker, G. et al. (2017) ‘Complacent young citizens or cross-generational solidarity? An analysis of Australian attitudes to democratic politics’, Australian Journal of Political Science, 52(2), pp. 218–235.