Young age and voting : Analysis of the relationship between young Belgians and voting
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- Voting at a young age can be complicated, especially in the Belgian context with its consociational character and the compulsory voting. Indeed, voting in Belgium represents a challenge and can push young people who lack political interest not to vote in a considered or reasonable way. This may lead one to wonder how young people are influenced when they go to the polls. What are the real factors that influence young people to vote or not when they first vote? The study of the 18–25-year olds allows to obtain both a view of first-time voters and to count young people who vote for their second time. After studying, the implications of the sense of duty, the educational criterion and other variables, it turns out that young people are mainly influenced by the educational criteria. Studying the education system and the level of education represents the most direct way to predict the electoral behaviour of a voter. However, education is not the only influence felt by young people. Indeed, young Belgians are also influenced by their entourage and their family. More particularly, it is the socialisation of young people that determines the way in which they will behave once confronted with the vote. The sense of duty is still present in the minds of young Belgians but is represented differently. Indeed, the biggest discovery of this thesis is that young people are not discouraged from voting but want to go towards alternative paths of political participation and this can be translated by the concept of political alienation which is the abandonment young people feel vis-à-vis the decisions taken by the elected representatives, who are supposed to represent them. In reality, young Belgians are not discouraged or lack political interest, they want to play a real role in politics.