Defending Democracy
Youth populations globally are becoming increasingly disaffected with conventional politics. Over the last few decades, countries around the world have experienced a decline in formal political participation by youth as well as growing distrust in established political institutions. This younger generation is also inheriting a slew of complex and intersecting challenges, including economic and social inequity, environmental degradation, and geopolitical competition and conflict.
As these circumstances converge, questions arise about young people’s beliefs in democratic values and the types of leaders and political systems they’re willing to endorse. At the same time, young people are finding new and innovative ways to participate in civic and political life that challenge established institutions and address socio-political and environmental challenges on their own terms.
Join Foreign Policy, in partnership with the National Democratic Institute, as we convene policymakers and rising youth activists to discuss this younger generation’s relationship to democracy, how they’re redefining democracy to respond to their circumstances, and how to support this new generation to address broad-based democratic challenges.