CoSS PhD Scholarship – Are young people losing faith in democracy? An empirical test of generational shifts in support for democracy.

This PhD project will tackle a topic of tremendous current relevance, which has sparked considerable scientific and public interest: whether and why young people in established democracies are losing faith in a democratic form of government. In this project, a PhD student will use the large trove of existing cross-national survey data to investigate whether generational decline in democratic support is evident in the long-established Western democracies, and – if so – what the drivers of this decline are. The project will help resolve scholarly debate around generational decline in Western attachment to democracy, and will therefore feed into timely public discussions around democracy and its discontents. There will be a particular focus on testing the roles played by increasing inequality, growing polarisation, and declining civic education in generational erosion of public support.