Millennials Increasingly Dissatisfied With Democracy

Young people have grown increasingly disillusioned with the democratic process, more so than previous generations had at their age, according to a new study from the University of Cambridge’s Centre for the Future of Democracy.

Researchers, analyzing almost 50 years worth of data, found that more than half of millennials in the United States, Europe, Africa, and South America are unhappy with democracy, a higher rate of dissatisfaction than both Generation X and baby boomers expressed at the same age.

"By their mid-thirties, 55% of global millennials say they are dissatisfied with democracy, whereas under half of Generation X felt the same way at that age. The majority of baby boomers — now in their sixties and seventies — continue to report satisfaction with democracy, as did the interwar generation," said Dr. Roberto Foa of Cambridge's Department of Politics and International Studies, the study’s lead author.

"This is the first generation in living memory to have a global majority who are dissatisfied with the way democracy works while in their twenties and thirties.

"This democratic disconnect is not a given, but the result of democracies failing to deliver outcomes that matter for young people in recent decades, from jobs and life chances to addressing inequality and climate change," Foa added, noting that "economic exclusion" and inequality in employment rates have created major wealth gaps between millennials and older generations.

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