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The book begins by outlining the nature of the ‘youthquake’ at the 2017 UK General Election – the Oxford English Dictionary’s ‘Word of the Year’. We argue that 2017 was indeed a transformative election: one in which youth turnout returned to levels not seen since the early 1990s; one in which age replaced class as the most important predictor of voting intention; one in which we witnessed a resurgence in youth activism in (some) political parties; and, one in which the cultural values and economic priorities of Young Millennials dramatically altered the British political landscape. The introduction explores recent trends in youth political engagement in the UK and other established democracies, emphasizing the decline in electoral participation and growth in non-institutionalized, issue-based forms of political action. It draws attention to the increase in cosmopolitan values amongst Young Millennials and shows how this has found expression – after the financial crisis – through both political protest and a resurgence in (anti-establishment) electoral participation.

This chapter reviews existing theories of youth electoral participation and political participation more generally. We separate the literature into studies that deal with the implications of socio-economic change, those that emphasize changes in the nature of the political system, and those that pay greater attention to (youth) political activism. The analysis highlights the central role of education, identity and communication in shaping youth engagement in, or disillusionment with, politics.

The chapter sets out our conceptualisation of ‘young cosmopolitans’. We argue that a combination of economic stagnation, high levels of educational attainment, and rapid social change, have resulted in a historically distinct cocktail of political engagement and resentment, and the emergence of a large, young group of citizens in the UK and other established democracies. These developments explain the widespread youth support both for Britain remaining in the European Union and for Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party. Building on the recent work of Norris and Inglehart (2018), we assert that young people’s politics is defined both by material interests (which became more pressing in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis), but also by an outward-looking cosmopolitanism and acceptance of cultural diversity. Young cosmopolitan-left individuals are likely to hold university degrees, to be in full-time education, female, and live in an urban environment. Conversely, young, white males with low levels of educational attainment are least likely to possess these views.

This chapter investigates young people’s attitudes towards, and engagement in, electoral politics before and after the onset of the 2008 global financial crisis. Drawing upon two representative surveys of 18 year olds conducted in 2002 and in 2011, it explores how youth perceptions of politics, participation rates and political preferences vary by age, gender, ethnicity, level of educational attainment and educational career trajectory. It considers how political attitudes and engagement are shaped by political knowledge, trust and a sense of confidence - both in one’s ability to act, as well as the effectiveness of this activism, in achieving change. We also look at the extent to which British political parties have attempted (or neglected) to engage with young people through an analysis of Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat manifestos and voter mobilisation strategies for the 2001 and 2010 general elections.

The chapter identifies the economic and cultural issues that are prominent in young people’s politics, and explores how attitudes, engagement, policy preferences and political allegiances have been affected by the financial crisis. The ‘silent revolution in youth political engagement’ is illustrated by the continuing prominence of postmaterialist values – even after the financial crisis – which has been accompanied by youth participation in non-electoral forms of politics and engagement with anti-establishment or non-mainstream parties and candidates in the electoral system.

This chapter examines ‘the opposition of young cosmopolitans to Brexit’ (British exit from the European Union). It begins by exploring the relationship between public attitudes towards European integration and the rise of authoritarian-nationalist populism and cosmopolitan ideals in the UK and elsewhere in Europe. Afterwards, it presents the results of a representative survey of youth attitudes and engagement in the 2016 British EU referendum. At the same time, we investigate the platforms of the Remain and Leave campaigns, to evaluate the extent to which each were willing or able to articulate and address young people’s concerns and interests. The analysis finds that three quarters of young people supported Remain in the referendum their lack of trust in the very political elites that fronted the Remain campaign. This chapter also drills down into the composition of the youth vote according to demographic factors, knowledge, trust and efficacy. Young university students were particularly likely to engage in the referendum campaign and to vote Remain.

The chapter highlights the interplay between economic and cultural reasons for supporting British membership of the EU, and finds that young people’s support for EU membership was less to do with any sense of European identity, and much more do to with their relative acceptance of cultural diversity and European integration, and their fears of the negative economic consequences of a potential Brexit (in an era of austerity and falling living standards).

In this chapter, we turn our attention to the ‘youthquake election’ of 2017. We draw upon another of our surveys as well as freely available polling data, to explore youth attitudes to, and engagement in, the 2017 General Election, which resulted in a seismic change in youth participation: an increase in turnout and mass support for the Labour Party amongst Young Millennials, reaching up to all cohorts under 45, which denied the Conservative Party a majority in the new House of Commons. The 2017 election represented the largest gap in youth support for the two many parties since records began, as age replaced class as the best indicator of voter choice. Regarding intragenerational differences, the highest levels of youth support for Labour came from young black minority ethnic citizens, young women, young people of a low social grade, and young people who voted Remain in 2016.

Chapter also examines the supply side of politics in more depth. It assesses the success of Jeremy Corbyn’s team in mobilizing young people – through the work of Momentum as well as the appeal of Corbyn himself. We also analyse the drawing-power of the 2017 General Election manifestos of the Conservative Party, Labour and the Liberal Democrats – and the extent to which each was able to communicate a substantive policy programme for younger citizens.

We conclude by highlighting the emergence of citizens, and explaining what this means for the future of the British political system and other established democracies. We account for the resurgence in youth activism in the following ways. First, the redistribution of resources away from younger citizens and youth-oriented public policy after 2010 has persuaded more young people to favour increased public spending in areas such as health and education. Second, cultural differences across generations have deepened. Young people are much more approving of cultural diversity, more welcoming of European integration, and much less concerned about immigration than older generations.

Here, we reflect upon the success of Jeremy Corbyn in appealing to younger voters, but also on efforts by the Conservative Party (after the 2017 General Election) to widen their appeal amongst those cohorts. After decades of neglect by the political class, this has the potential to inspire a virtuous circle of engagement by political actors in youth-oriented policy and greater participation of younger voters in electoral politics. Nevertheless, it is far from certain whether mainstream political parties will be able to capitalize, beyond Corbyn, on this increase in youth engagement in electoral politics.