‘Rejuvenating Democracy? ’ Young People and the ‘Big Society ’ Project

Declining participation in traditional forms of politics has become a central theme for academics and policy-makers, and has often been viewed as marking a crisis in citizenship. While youth participation in electoral politics has declined rapidly in recent decades, participation in issue-based forms of civic and political engage-ment has actually increased. However, the disconnection of young people from the political system remains a problem. The Conservative Party came to power in May 2010 after the onset of the global financial crisis, and a central theme of Prime Minister Cameron’s agenda is the ‘Big Society’, which aims to make citizens ‘feel both free and powerful enough to help themselves and their own communities’. It has provided the backdrop for concrete policy initiatives designed to decentralise power, further open up public services and create oppor-tunities for citizens to get engaged at the local level. For it to succeed, the Big Society requires a cultural shift in civic and political engagement, for younger citizens (in particular) to embrace these new opportunities. This article evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of the Big Society in light of what we know about young people’s politics in the UK and beyond. 1