Non-voting young people in conflict with the political system

This article argues that to grasp the reason why so many young people choose not to vote in local elections, we must supplement the many quantitative studies by asking the youth themselves. This study, then, is based on focus group interviews with young people discussing their experience of politics and political communication. In this way the analysis investigates how democracy and politics are essentially contested by young people. Inspired by Niklas Luhmann, the article furthermore argues that it is profitable to understand these many ‘noes’ to voting as a progressive conflict between non-voting young people and the political system.