Home › CRV ›

Center for Research on Vermont

More Videos in this Series

Do As I Say, Not As I Do - Increasing Youth Voter Participation in a Cynical Age

April 11, 2000

Participants:
  • Deborah L. Markowitz, VT Secretary of State
Length: 1:32:39
Next Air Dates: No upcoming airtimes are currently scheduled

Order a DVD LOGIN to Request

Tags:

Young voter turnout, VT voting patterns, roots of voter apathy, new millennium generation

Program Description:

At mid-century, U.S. educator Robert Maynard Hutchins warned, "The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush. It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference and undernourishment." Poised at the close of a century and the dawn of a new millennium, we can see Hutchins's bleak prediction beginning to come true. The "New Millennium Generation"--with more than 70 million American youth--is the largest generation of young people in U.S. history, larger than that of the baby boomers. This new generation will redefine society in the 21st century. It is not an exaggeration to say that the strength or weakness of U.S. democracy in the new century will be largely determined by the attitudes and actions that young Americans bring into society in the next decade. Yet, this is a nonvoting generation. Nationally only 48.8 percent of 18-24-year olds registered to vote in 1996. Of that 48.8 percent, only 32.4 percent voted--fewer than one in five. The statistics for Vermont are even lower: In 1996 only 39 percent of 18-24-year-old Vermonters registered to vote, and only 26.2 percent voted. We can compare this to Vermont's overall registration rate of 87 percent, with a 56 percent turnout. As U.S. history teaches us, citizens who do not vote are not likely to be involved in the many other duties and responsibilities of maintaining a democratic society. What is the root of this problem? Is this simply an outgrowth of an overall decline in civic participation? Is it because of the globalization of our cultural experience and the influence of the media and computers? Or is our society's cynicism about government and our political leaders to blame? What can we do as parents, government leaders, and educators to reverse this dangerous trend? The problem is complex but the stakes are too great not to give the next generation our full attention. Presented by Deborah L. Markowitz, VT Secretary of State.