Millennial’s Political Activism

Abstract

Political activity is a telling behavior about a generation, influencing how policy makers in the U.S. do their jobs and how budgets are set. A generation without any political activity risks missing out on benefits from activity, while an active generation may help shape the institutions and traditions in a political culture. There are significant challenges to measuring individual political activity, and the question isn’t simply “how politically active are you?” A tool traditionally used to address this challenge is a seven- point scale based on the correlation between an individual’s party identification and political activism. This measurement allows polltakers to label themselves as strong or weak for either major party, independent leaning Republican/Democrat or truly independent. For a deeper look, scholars can gauge political activism by examining a number of sub-levels of activism, rather than relying simply on a seven-point scale. Social identity has become an important way to measure levels of partisanship and interest amongst the citizenry.