Jasmine Lorenzini

Employment Status and Political Participation: Does Exclusion Influence the Protest Behavior of the Young Unemployed?

This chapter examines the relationship between employment status and the political participation of young people. We focus more specifically on the impact of long-term unemployment on the participation of youth. We aim to determine whether exclusion from the labor market deters the potential that youngsters have for political participation and therefore for taking part in the democratic process. We focus in particular on the propensity of young long-term unemployed people to engage in collective action and, more specifically, in protest activities. Using survey data drawn from a EU-funded research project, we find, firstly, that young unemployed and regularly employed youth do not differ significantly on five broad forms of participation considered (voting, contacting, group activities, consumer activities, and protest activities), nor do they differ on the overall political participation. Second, we focused on three kinds of exclusion that may arise from being unemployed (economic, social, and political) and looked at whether young unemployed and regularly employed youth differ in this regard. Here we found that the two groups differ significantly on all three counts, young unemployed being more excluded on all three counts, but the difference is greater on the economic dimension than on the social and political dimensions. Third, we zoomed in on the sample of young unemployed people in order to test for the effect of three kinds of exclusion on their propensity to engage in protest activities. Two forms of exclusion have a statistically significant effect on the use of protest activities by young unemployed people: economic exclusion and social exclusion. However, while economic exclusion encourages the young unemployed to be politically active, social exclusion seems to deter political participation, at least as far as protest is concerned.

Disclaiming national representatives: Protest waves in Southern Europe during the crisis

The Eurozone crisis triggered deep political dissent in Southern Europe. As the crisis unfolded, citizens took massively to the streets in attempts to prevent austerity policies but also to call for more democracy. We analyze protest waves in four Southern European countries: Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain. We argue that protest events are reactions to austerity measures when austerity is the only game in town. Hence, we test the effects of elections, the presence of new challengers, and austerity votes on protest. We use a data set of protest events based on the coding of newswires covering protest in its different forms from 2000 to 2015. We show that protest waves took place in the four countries and that they reveal widespread dissatisfaction with austerity policies. Our article contributes to the understanding of the links between protest and institutional politics during the Eurozone crisis.

Gender ideology : the last barrier to women's participation in political consumerism?

In this article, we analyze how gender affects women’s political participation. More specifically, we test the effect of gender ideology on young women’s participation in political consumerism. The current literature suggests different reasons to explain the gap in political participation between men and women, most importantly focusing on socioeconomic resources, gender roles, and political socialization, whereas little attention has been devoted to the individual interpretation of a woman and man’s own role in society. We test the effects of gender ideology on political consumerism, a form in which women participate more than men. We analyze political consumerism among young urban women, the population most likely to hold an egalitarian gender ideology. Moreover, we compare young women with different job conditions. Although the gender gap is closing or reversing in regard to specific forms of participation, such as consumerism, some inequalities remain, and our study contributes to understanding differences in participation among women themselves.

Social Networks and Social Capital

This chapter investigates the role of social capital for the political engagement of unemployed youth. Both social capital drawn from membership in voluntary associations and that resulting from interpersonal networks and relations are considered. Previous research has often stressed the importance of civil society organizations for political engagement. At the individual level, this translates into the idea that membership in voluntary associations spurs political engagement. This chapter aims to ascertain whether social capital stemming from associational membership, interpersonal networks, and social support matter for the political participation by young unemployed. It addresses the following research question: To what extent does the social capital provided by associational involvement or social relations mitigate the negative effects of unemployment on the political engagement of youth?

Long-Term Unemployed Youth in Switzerland: Coping with Exclusion from the Labor Market in a Country with Low Unemployment

This chapter examines the effects of long-term unemployment for youth social inclusion and personal well-being in Switzerland. Studying such effects in a context of low unemployment contributes to understanding how unemployment negatively affects everyday life and, in particular, how it hinders personal well-being and self-confidence. In such a context, being unemployed is more stigmatizing as the individuals confronted with unemployment tend to blame themselves and have to face more prejudices against them. Thus, unemployed youth suffer from a loss of personal well-being that might be stronger than in contexts characterized by higher levels of unemployment. We stress in particular the role of the social support provided by family members, friends, and partners in mitigating the effects of unemployment.

The Political Role of Civil Society in the Policy Field of Youth Unemployment and Precarious Working Conditions

Civil society organizations (CSOs) operating in the field of youth unemployment and precarious working conditions promote a wide offer of political activities that range from providing information and expertise during the process of policy design and implementation to engaging in more confrontational actions such as calling for collective mobilization. The development and use of such a breadth of activities is dependent upon the specific political-institutional setting in which they operate. In particular, different unemployment regimes, namely those contexts within which unemployment and precarious work are tackled with diverse policy tools, provide different incentives to CSOs activity. For example, the use of activation policies, which aim at improving people’s employability through engaging them in training, formation, or other skills improvement, have fostered the development of CSOs specializing in service delivery in the field of education and training (Handler 2003; Defourny and Nyssens 2010). Similarly, a change in the configuration of leading actors in labor policy such as trade unions has facilitated the mobilization of CSOs to protest about unemployment (Baglioni et al. 2008). Thus, the action repertoire of societal actors is closely related to the characteristics of the institutional settings in which it develops.

Restrukturierung des west - europäischen Parteienwettbewerbs in der großen Rezession

Der Parteienwettbewerb hat sich in Nordwesteuropa seit den 1980er Jahren sowohl mit Blick auf die Inhalte als auch die Akteurskonfiguration stark gewandelt. Vor dem Hintergrund dieser langfristigen Veranderungen konzentriert sich der vorliegende Beitrag auf die Frage, welche Auswirkungen die grose Rezession und die Eurokrise auf die Strukturierung des Parteienwettbewerbs hatten: Dienten sie als Katalysator fur einen Wandel, der sich bereits lange vor der Krise abgezeichnet hat? Oder haben sie die langfristigen Trends vielmehr umgekehrt und konstituieren sie einen neue „kritische Wende“ in der Entwicklung des nationalen politischen Raums in Nordwesteuropa? Im vorliegenden Beitrag versuchen wir, diese Fragen anhand einer Analyse der Strukturierung des Parteienwettbewerbs auf der politischen Angebotsseite von sechs Landern, im Zeitraum von den 1970er Jahren bis zum Fruhling 2015, zu beantworten. Die untersuchten Lander sind Deutschland, Frankreich, Grosbritannien, die Niederlande, Osterreich und die Schweiz. Insgesamt dominiert in unseren Resultaten die Kontinuitat. Die Krise hat zwar Konflikte zu wirtschaftlichen Fragen in allen Landern auser Frankreich verstarkt, aber zu einem deutlichen Wandel ist es nicht gekommen. Wenn dann haben sich die langfristigen Trends eher verstarkt als umgedreht.

The Political Engagement of Unemployed Youth

This chapter looks at the political participation of long-term unemployed youth. The chapter starts with a theoretical discussion of the literature on the political participation of youth and of unemployed youth, then moves on to show descriptive data on the political attitudes and behaviors of unemployed youth in Geneva. The literature review focuses on scholarship on youth and politics, as works on the participation of unemployed is scarce. The description of the data is aimed to ascertain the extent to which the trends described in the literature applies to the specific case of Geneva by comparing unemployed and non-unemployed youth there. The description deals more specifically with political interest, knowledge, efficacy, cynicism, and participation.

Deprivation and Subjective Well-Being

This chapter looks at the deprivation associated to unemployment and the related subjective well-being of young unemployed, and its impact on political engagement. It deals with the non-financial importance of paid work by building on deprivation theory. In the empirical part, we compare unemployed and employed youth to analyze how the exclusion from such central social institutions reduces subjective well-being in terms of self-confidence, ability to face problems, life satisfaction, and optimism about the future. The chapter addresses the following research question: To what extent does unemployment affect the subjective well-being of young people and how does subjective well-being contribute to their political engagement?

Welfare State and Political Learning

This chapter examines the interactions of young unemployed with the state and the ways in which they perceive unemployment agencies and policies, and how this impacts on their readiness to engage in politics. The chapter shows how the political engagement of unemployed youth rests on different perceptions of the way in which the state deals with unemployment. Such perceptions are seen as being part of a process of political learning shaping political attitudes and, in turn, lead to different outcomes in terms of political engagement. It addresses the following research question: To what extent does the perception that young unemployed have of the role and effectiveness of policies aimed to counter the negative effects of unemployment affect their political engagement?