An Internal Threat: Are the Young Losing Interest in Democracy? : A descriptive study on support for democracy in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden

Is support for democracy decreasing among the young? Attitudes among the young tell us about the future of democracy. Today, support is declining in the USA and researchers disagree about whether the same is true for Western Europe. Some researchers believe that there is cause for concern while others argue that the young generation is more tolerant and have higher aspirations for democracy, which means that we do not need to worry. According to the theory of generational replacement and its scarcity and socialization hypotheses, diffuse support for democracy as well as tolerance should be stable or even increasing in the young cohorts. Using a quantitative method and data from the European Values Study, these parameters along with specific support will be measured in the countries of Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden, which are most-likely cases to have strong support for democracy among citizens. The main findings are that diffuse support seems to be stable in the young cohort in all countries except Denmark, where there is a slight decline. Specific support fluctuates over time and tolerance is highest among the young cohort but declining over time in the older cohorts in Denmark and Norway. The results predict that support for democracy will remain although there are some signs of challenges ahead.