Are the Young Undemocratic? Evidence from a Conjoint Experiment

Are younger generations less supportive of democracy than older generations? This article adds to ongoing scholarly debates on young people’s support for democracy. We contribute to the field by using evidence from a conjoint experiment embedded in a survey with a representative sample of the Finnish population (n = 1030) to examine whether support for core democratic principles is weaker among the younger generations (Generation Z and Millennials) than the older generations (Generation X and Baby Boomers). Our results do not support the expectation that the younger generations in Finland would be systematically less committed to democratic norms than the older generations. However, we find some generational differences in responses to different democratic norm violations. Our findings make a second contribution to the field of youth and democracy by extending our analyses to the youngest generations of age, Generation Z, whose democratic support has not yet been broadly examined. Our study contributes both to the ongoing debate on democratic deconsolidation in established democracies as well as to the literature on young people’s attitudes towards democratic institutions.