Young People And Citizenship
This week, the nation's children returned for the new school year and the first ever National Curriculum lessons in Citizenship.
This week, the nation's children returned for the new school year and the first ever National Curriculum lessons in Citizenship.
We are able to examine attitudes of both schoolchildren and of recent school leavers from several MORI surveys covering citizenship issues in recent years: a survey of adults (aged 15+) for the Institute of Citizenship in July 1998, surveys of voting age adults for the Electoral Commission in May and June 2001, and surveys of pupils aged 11-16 in state schools across England and Wales in January-March 2002, for the ATL and for the Youth Justice Board, as well as a smattering of data from other surveys.
The new curriculum aims to imbue young people with both knowledge and values - the workings of the institutions of civic society, and some feelings of responsibility to participate. The rubric promises to teach pupils "knowledge and understanding about becoming informed citizens" as well as "developing skills of enquiry and communication, and participation and responsible action". This knowledge is defined as including some sweeping and ambitious topics such as "the legal and human rights and responsibilities underpinning society", and also government (central and local), elections, public services, the criminal justice system, the economy and the media among other subjects. Key stage 4 includes two items directly encouraging active participation, "the importance of playing an active part in democratic and electoral processes" and "the opportunities for individuals and voluntary groups to bring about social change locally, nationally, in Europe and internationally".
There is much evidence in the MORI research to suggest that citizenship education may be needed. Young people have low levels of knowledge about many of these issues, and their values seem to lead many of them away from active participation.
In 1998, only a third (34%) of 15-24 year olds felt they knew at least a fair amount about their rights as a citizen (compared to 51% of all adults), and 48% felt they knew about their responsibilities as a citizen (65% for all adults). When we asked them what they felt were the most important aspects of being a good citizen, passive rather than active elements tended to lead the list.
Q Which two or three of these do you feel are most important to being a good citizen?
| All | 15-24 | |
| % | % | |
| Respecting others | 41 | 51 |
| Looking after the environment | 30 | 41 |
| Obeying the law | 39 | 40 |
| Being a good parent | 40 | 26 |
| Setting a good example to others | 20 | 23 |
| Being a good neighbour | 30 | 22 |
(Leading items only) Source: MORI/Institute for Citizenship Base: 896 adults 15+, 17-21 July 1998
This pattern was if anything more marked when we put a similar question to school pupils this year. "Respecting others" and "obeying the law" were far out ahead of the other options. Very few of the children, just 6%, chose voting at elections, and "having a say in what goes on" and "volunteering to do things" also found few takers.
Q In your opinion, which two or three of the following are the most important things that make someone a good citizen?
| School children (11-16) 2002 | |
| % | |
| Respecting others | 87 |
| Obeying the law | 72 |
| Looking after the environment | 47 |
| Being a good parent | 31 |
| Having a say in what goes on | 19 |
| Volunteering to do things | 17 |
| Voting at elections | 6 |
| Other | 2 |
| None of these | * |
| Don't know | 2 |
| Not stated | * |
Source: MORI/ATL (2002)
The order of priorities is similar, though less starkly defined, than when we asked 15-24 year olds a similar question in 1998. Voting in particular, and active involvement in the community in general, are seen as having little importance. Modern young people seem to see matters primarily in individualist terms, and think of citizenship in terms of how they treat others, and what they are entitled to, rather than as something in which they participate. They see their rights as citizens in terms of social services. In 1998, 69% listed the NHS, 64% higher & further education, and 64% list unemployment or unemployment benefit (60%). Fewer put a high premium on the right to vote or free assembly for peaceful meetings and demonstrations.
These attitudes are clearly related to young people's lower sense of belonging to the community. In the 1998 survey, only 65% of 18-24 year olds felt they "belong strongly" to "your local community" (versus 74% of their elders). For belonging to England, Scotland or Wales it is 77% (versus 84%), and for belonging to the UK it is 66% (versus 78%). They feel even less loyalty to Europe, only 32% (versus 35% of their elders). Similarly, young people feel less involved - in a survey this year for the Commission for Racial Equality, only 1% of 16-24 year olds said they felt "a great deal" involved in the local community, and 15% "a fair amount", compared to 5% and 26% respectively for all adults. They are also a little less likely than their older counterparts to feel there is a great deal or a fair amount of community spirit in their area.
It is not that this generation is necessarily more self-centred than other age groups. The 1999 MORI/Socioconsult survey found that two-thirds, 66 percent, of 15-24 year olds disagreed that "I have enough trouble worrying about my own problems without worrying about others"; this was significantly more than the 57 percent of the population as a whole who disagreed. But fewer of them seem to see a co-operative, participatory community as the way the world works.
Claimed political knowledge, too, is lower among young people than among the population as a whole: 30% of 18-24 year olds and 23% of secondary school pupils say they know a great deal or a fair amount about the way Parliament works, compared to 43% among the whole adult population; just 4% of 18-24 year olds and 3% of pupils think they know a great deal about the workings of Westminster. (This is not, of course, a new phenomenon. In MORI's 1991 State of the Nation survey for the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust, only 32% of 18-24 year olds felt they knew a great deal or a fair amount about the way Parliament works - no statistically significant change over ten years.) But it is surely significant that the difference between school children and young adults is not larger. Few of those who have acquired the right to vote seem to have made a successful effort to acquire the knowledge to go with it, if they had not already picked this up at an earlier age.
Other surveys indicate similarly lower knowledge among the youngest age group: in a MORI survey for The Times in the second week of the general election campaign, only 25% of 18-24 year olds could name their parliamentary constituency (compared to 43% of all adults), and 23% knew the name of their MP (compared to 41%).
The gap is greater still on knowledge of local councils, the 22% of 18-24 year olds who say they know at least a fair amount being barely half the 42% of all adults who say the same; this correlates with the substantially greater shortfall in voting among young people at council than at Westminster level. In a separate survey (for Green Issues Communications this April), only 20% of 15-24 year olds said they knew their councillor's name), by contrast, 45% of 45-54 year olds and 46% of the 55+ group claimed to do so, though even these figures might be thought disappointingly low for the health of local government.
Lower political knowledge goes naturally with lower electoral turnout. Turnout among young people, as among other age groups, fell to its lowest level ever in the 2001 general election; MORI's estimate is that just 39%, fewer than two in five, of 18-24 year olds voted. But turnout by the young is lower than other age groups across the board. MORI's survey for the Electoral Commission, conducted just after the start of the 2001 election campaign, found that only 6% of the public admit that they "never vote", and 68% claim they "always vote" in general elections; but among 18-24 year olds, almost a quarter say they never vote, barely outnumbered by the 30% who "always vote".
Q Which of these best describes how often you vote in ...?
| ...general elections | ...local council elections | ...European Parliament elections | ||||
| All | 18-24 | All | 18-24 | All | 18-24 | |
| % | % | % | % | % | % | |
| I never vote | 6 | 24 | 15 | 51 | 42 | 61 |
| I rarely vote | 3 | 7 | 9 | 11 | 8 | 12 |
| I sometimes vote | 7 | 17 | 11 | 7 | 9 | 8 |
| I usually vote | 15 | 16 | 21 | 15 | 12 | 4 |
| I always vote | 68 | 30 | 43 | 14 | 25 | 9 |
| It depends | * | 3 | * | 0 | * | * |
| Don't know | 1 | 4 | * | 2 | 3 | 5 |
Source: MORI/Electoral Commission Base: 1,801 UK adults 18+, 9-15 May 2001
When the focus is extended from general elections to local and European elections, claimed frequency of voting drops much further. This is true for all age groups, but especially for the youngest cohort. The division is particularly stark in the case of local council elections, at which 18-24 year olds are less than a third as likely as average to say that they always vote. Half of 18-24 year olds "never vote" in local elections, and three in five "never vote" in elections for the European Parliament.
Low propensity to vote does not necessarily imply a rejection of the values of citizenship. Five in six 18-24 year olds disagree that "I don't think voting is very important" with three in five disagreeing strongly; only 13% agree with the statement. And among the next generation, 17% of the schoolchildren think voting is not important but 50% disagree. Similarly, 76% disagree that "I don't think voting makes much of a difference" with the majority of those, 44% of all 18-24 year olds, disagreeing strongly; only just over one in six, 17%, agree with the statement. The responses of 18-24 year olds closely matched those of the rest of the public.
But the young may decide to vote or not to vote for different reasons. Although two-thirds of 18-24 year olds agree "I feel it is my duty to vote", 26% disagree - almost twice as many as do so in the population as a whole. Only 57% of the schoolchildren agree "I feel it will be my duty to vote when I am older"; 12% disagree, but 31% neither or disagree, or don't know.
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Q I am going to read out a number of statements. Please tell me how much do you agree or disagree with each.
Source: MORI/Electoral Commission Base: 1,801 UK adults 18+, 9-15 May 2001 |
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The importance of habit should not be underestimated, and of course it is much stronger with older voters, who have turned out in many elections, than with the young who have yet to establish the habit. Of those who said they certain to vote, 42% of those aged 65+ gave "I always vote" as their reason, but only 29% of the 18-24 year olds. For the young, the circumstances of a particular election may, therefore, be more significant. Young people differed significantly from their elders in being less likely to see the outcome of the 2001 election as important; and the gap was much more marked in 2001 than in 1997. Again, though, this may be an effect of specific aspects of the 2001 general election rather than a more permanent trend in young people's attitudes to the political system. Q How important is it to you personally who wins the general election?
Source: MORI When we asked those who were "certain to vote" why they were certain, one in five explained because "It is my right"; this was most common among young voters, and perhaps reflects the way in which political thought has tended more to concentrate on rights than duties in recent years. It seems possible that that the basic view of motivation for voting among those who think it important may be undergoing a significant evolution, and may be being seen less as a component of good citizenship than as an exercise for personal benefit. (But this possibility, though raised by the findings, cannot of course be conclusively established on the basis of a single survey.) MORI's first survey for the Electoral Commission confirmed that one factor in the low turnout among young people was that a substantial proportion of the young feel short of information. Two-thirds of 18-24 year olds, 66%, agreed that they didn't know enough about candidates and the majority were also more likely to agree than disagree that they didn't know enough about the parties. Good citizenship may not necessarily imply voting regardless of ignorance - indeed, not voting in ignorance can be seen as a virtue. As two different focus group members explained to us:
Female, non-voter, Stockport
Female, rare/non-voter, Watford It is important to note that, although the surveys suggest that the young give a low priority to participation as an element of good citizenship, it is only in the field of party politics that participation among the young seems to have fallen off in recent years. For many years, MORI has regularly asked a series of questions on 'Socio-Political Activism', measuring the degree to which Britons become involved with activities in the public sphere, either voluntary or party political, and we can compare responses from the first half of this year with those from a survey thirty years ago. There has been a significant fall in those activities connected with the political parties, especially marked among the young; but other activities, which are political in a broader sense, have held up or indeed increased: substantially fewer young people say they have voted, or encouraged others to vote, and far fewer have been involved in a political campaign; but fund-raising, making speeches and - tellingly - contacting elected members have all held up well. |
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Q Which of the things on this list, if any, have you done in the last two or three years?
Source: MORI Base: 2,062 British 16+, 1972; 46,143 British 16+, January-December 1999; 24,338 British 16+, January-June 2002 |
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So there is little evidence that young people are, in general terms, less enthusiastic or more apathetic than they ever were. But they do seem to have become increasingly disengaged from the party political process. There is, also, a thirst for knowledge: 59% of 15-24 year olds agreed that "I want to know more about how to get involved", a significantly higher figure than for the older age groups. If the new lessons deliver on the promise of the curriculum, more school leavers will feel they have this knowledge. Another important aspect of young people's acceptance of responsibility towards the community can be explored through their attitudes to crime, one element they themselves recognise as being of importance. MORI research for the Youth Justice Board this year found that a quarter (26%) of pupils aged 11-16 admit they have committed a criminal offence in the past twelve months. Levels of offending are much higher - almost two-thirds, 64% - among pupils who have been excluded from school, and the offences tend to more serious. (The most common offence among excluded pupils is handling stolen goods, whereas for those at school it is fare dodging. Three in five excluded pupils have handled stolen goods, around half have stolen from shops, and more than half have carried a weapon other than a gun.) Of course, there has always been a fair amount of petty crime among school children, but the attitudes that go with this behaviour are perhaps more worrying. Although 81% of children in school say it is "always wrong ... no matter what the situation" to burgle a house, and 80% to steal from your family, this implies a considerable minority among children who do not see criminal activity as wrong. More alarming, only 64% said it was always wrong to carry a knife as a weapon, and just half, 50% that it is always wrong to fare dodge. The high acceptance of supposedly "victimless" crimes such as fare dodging, which of course in reality hurt society just as does any instance of individuals failing to accept their share of responsibilities and costs, might be seen as allied to the low number (only 9% of all adults in 1998) that recognise paying taxes as one of the most important duties of citizens. On the other hand, there are few signs of any developing tribal mentality to crime. There is little distinction made between victims, suggesting a fair degree of acceptance of responsibility to the community. While 80% think it is always wrong to steal from your family, 77% think it always wrong to steal from people you do not know, and 74% to take goods from shops without paying. These distinctions are much more marked among offenders, and especially among offenders excluded from schools, of whom 72% think it wrong to steal from their family but only 46% to do so from a stranger; the rarer such distinctions are, the better for society. A related aspect of citizenship that might be considered is the response to tension between loyalty to society and loyalty to our friends. Here citizenship among young people comes off distinctly second-best by comparison with friendship: in a 1999 MORI/Socioconsult survey, young people were reluctant to commit themselves to helping the authorities to uphold the law. When asked "A friend is in trouble with the police. You were present that day and you are asked to give your testimony. Would you describe everything you actually saw, even if this will lead to your friend's conviction, or not mention everything so that he/she will be discharged?", the public as a whole split two to one in favour of giving evidence (67 percent to 33 percent of those who gave an answer); but women aged 15-24 were evenly split (47:53), and young men were almost two-to-one (62 percent to 38) in favour of keeping quiet. This phenomenon, again, is hardly new, and indeed a dislike of "sneaking" is as much a part of the traditional establishment, public school ethic as of anything that might be thought more subversive. But it is, nevertheless, a weakness in the edifice of citizenship and one that the new curriculum is perhaps unlikely to dispel. For a development that has such wide support, many might feel that citizenship lessons have taken a long time coming. In July 1998, 95% of the public agreed "Schools should teach children about how to be a good citizen". (This is stronger support, incidentally, than 77% who agreed in our survey for the CRE this year that "People who settle in this country should have citizenship lessons about the British way of life".) The majority of schoolchildren (56%) in a survey this year thought the same, though 10% disagreed. On the knowledge-based part of the curriculum, at least, we might hope to see perceptible improvements in a few years' time. Modifying the values of the next generation of pupils, causing them to put a greater emphasis on participation as a civic virtue and producing burgeoning electoral turnouts, will perhaps be more of a challenge. |
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