Youth support for direct versus talk‐centric democratic processes in Finland

Abstract

Growing worries over young people's lack of engagement in institutionalized political processes have been appeased by theories of young people's political preferences for alternative, more engaged political activities. However, young people's institutionalized participation is important for the quality of participation. Democratic innovations, institutions that are designed to increase citizen participation, have been suggested as one solution to bring young people back into institutionalized politics. However, in research, different forms of democratic innovations are often treated as a bulk measure and not examined separately—depriving us of knowledge of youth support for different types of participatory processes. This paper contributes to the literature by examining youth support for a direct versus talk‐centric democratic process in Finland. The results indicate that young people support both referendums and discussion forums more than older people do and that discussion forums are more popular than referendums. Additionally, democratic satisfaction has a reversed effect on support for discussion forums for young and old people.