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(CAMBRIDGE, United Kingdom) A new report from the University of Cambridge suggests that millennials, people aged 18 to 34, around the world are less satisfied with democracy than previous generations, according to USA Today.
The report, published online over the weekend by the university's Centre for the Future of Democracy, said it used the largest-ever global dataset on democratic legitimacy, with the data coming from over 4.8 million respondents, 43 sources and 160 countries between 1973 and 2020.
According to a news release, the study found that 55% of millennials are dissatisfied with democracy and that they are most positive about democracy under both left and right populist leaders.
Dr. Roberto Foa, a university lecturer and the lead author of the report, said, "This is the first generation in living memory to have a global majority who are dissatisfied with the way democracy works while in their twenties and thirties."
He added, "By their mid-thirties, 55% of global millennials say they are dissatisfied with democracy, whereas under half of Generation X felt the same way at that age. The majority of baby boomers - now in their sixties and seventies - continue to report satisfaction with democracy, as did the interwar generation."
But, the report found, millennials weren't always dissatisfied with democracy. In the early 2000s, millennials were more satisfied with democracy than their parents were, but the 2008 financial crisis turned many young people off the political system.
The researchers suggested that "economic exclusion" caused by high youth unemployment and wealth inequality was the biggest contributor to the swing from approval to disapproval.
Foa said, "Right across the world, we are seeing an ever widening gap between youth and older generations on how they perceive the functioning of democracy. This democratic disconnect is not a given, but the result of democracies failing to deliver outcomes that matter for young people in recent decades, from jobs and life chances to addressing inequality and climate change."
In its inaugural report published in January 2020 for its founding, the Centre for the Future of Democracy found that dissatisfaction with democracy was at "an all-time global high."