Guest post by Shawna Lacharite Interest in the development of
political and civic engagement increases when there are concerns
about the younger generation’s commitment to the political
system (Flanagan, 2003). Due to the issues surrounding weak
voter turnout in the past, researchers are focusing their
attention on perhaps an existing disparity among generations of
voters. In other words, why are the newer generations showing
different political behaviour than generations of the past? Is
it because today’s youth is more ambivalent about politics or is
it something more complex than that? Furthermore, how are these
differences developed? Based on an extensive amount of research,
the answer is social influence. Scholars believe that invested
knowledge in political structure is rooted in the influences
surrounding a person at a very young age. Such influences can be
the child’s parents, friends, or teachers. According to the
literature, these three sets of influences are among the
strongest in a person’s life, a