Government, Politics, and Democracy Most American youth believe that government has a legitimate role to play in people's lives and acknowledge that government has at least some impact in their own lives. In reality, they also see few connections between government's problem-solving role and the concerns they currently face in their daily lives. However in focus groups few participants could articulate any concrete ways in which government affects them. They talked about government affecting people who own business or have families or kids in college. They were hard pressed to articulate an impact on their lives.
American youth are pragmatic about political participation.
Civic duty is a motivator for only a small minority of young voters. These young people are disproportionately women, white, well educated, older and raised by parents who voted in every election. Young people want concrete reasons about how voting will affect their lives. Many youth believe they may vote at higher levels later in life when their concerns as parents, homeowners, and taxpayers seem to relate more to the decisions politicians make. This generation has been raised in a time of successive political scandals by increasingly cynical parents.