The Guardian reports that one in five voters under the age of 45 would prefer to do away with democracy and have an authoritarian strongman govern Britain. It’s almost touching that so many think Britain is still capable of being governed, but it’s concerning that a fifth of millennials and Gen Z have adopted the Kent Brockman position: ‘I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: democracy simply doesn’t work.’
The findings come from the as yet unpublished FGS Global Radar report. More than 2,000 UK adults were asked to say whether ‘the best system for running a country effectively’ was democracy or ‘a strong leader who doesn’t have to bother with elections’. While 74 per cent of respondents opted for democracy, that number failed to reach 70 per cent among any of the age groups belonging to the Gen Z or millennial generations. In the case of those aged 25 to 34, support for democracy was down to just 60 per cent. As a millennial myself, I’m all for democracy and hope we try it in this country at some point.
Of course, this is just one piece of research, but the data tracks with previous investigations. A 2020 study by the Bennett Institute for Public Policy revealed that millennials grow less satisfied with democracy with every passing year. A 2019 report by the Tory think tank Onward found striking levels of anti-democratic sentiment among voters under 35, with 64 per cent favouring ‘a strong leader who does not have to bother with parliament’ and 84 per cent minded to have ‘experts, not government, make decisions according to what they think is best for the country’.
Why are the youth suddenly in revolt against democracy? Perhaps the blame lies with the more reactionary and authoritarian instincts of young men, something seen in November’s US presidential election. Perhaps these findings reflect elite progressive attitudes, cultivated on university campuses, and turbo-charged by the electoral successes of candidates and causes anathema to younger voters, such as Donald Trump and Brexit. Or perhaps we are seeing a backlash against that very elite progressivism, and younger voters are signalling their affinity with a right-wing counter elite, embodied in movements like post-liberalism, common good conservatism and nationalism.
All reasonable interpretations, but allow me to suggest an alternative: this is less to do with politics than with economics. Consider the position younger voters find themselves in. Only 37 per cent of those born in the 1980s achieved home ownership by age 30, compared to 62 per cent of those born in the 1960s. An average-priced house in England today costs 8.6 times the average annual income, up from 4.4 times in 1999. New research from the Institute for Fiscal Studies shows that the proportion of 25 to 34-year-olds still living with their parents increased by more than a third between 2006 and last year. Especially frustrating for those desperate to get on the housing ladder is the frequency with which new developments are blocked, often off the back of lobbying by older home owners, all the while these young workers are being taxed onerously to fund generous state pensions for those obstructionist retirees.
Even the most basic hallmarks of middle-class British life are now beyond much of the young British middle class
The state pension, at £141 billion in 2024 is the second biggest outlay in the UK budget, outstripped only by NHS spending. In the last five years, the annual price tag for old age pensions increased by 25 per cent. Such spending is plainly unsustainable, meaning millennials and Gen-Z are funding for others state pensions that they are likely to see much later, and in smaller sums, if at all. Yet this is not reflected in their tax burden. Once their income tax, national insurance contributions and student loan repayments are factored in, young graduates on £30,000 are paying a marginal tax rate of 37 per cent – or 51 per cent if they are earning £65,000. Earlier generations could and did seek their fortune elsewhere when UK tax rates became too confiscatory. Not so the workers of today. Brexit, which younger Britons voted against, has deprived them of free movement throughout the world’s largest labour market, and introduced barriers to career opportunities on the Continent.
Facing these circumstances, why should under-45s have much faith in democracy? The concentration of electoral power in the hands of older demographics means they can easily be outvoted and public policymaking reflects this, with priority given to short-termist placation of asset-rich retirees and societal problems stored up for future generations. According to the FGS survey, 30 per cent of Brits aged 25 to 34 say ‘voting doesn’t make a difference’. They’re not wrong. Earnings power and social mobility are going backwards, bucking the trend that has hitherto seen each generation grow more prosperous than the one that preceded it, so much so that even the most basic hallmarks of middle-class British life – home ownership, starting a family, saving for retirement – are now beyond much of the young British middle class. The longer this situation pertains, the more that confidence in democracy will ebb, and will deserve to ebb. If a political order cannot provide for the general welfare of all the citizens, it must change its ways or accept that its legitimacy could eventually come under challenge.
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