Young Voters and War: The Iraq War as a Catalyst for Political Participation

Abstract

Objective We investigate whether the Iraq War might be a catalyzing event for this generation, like Vietnam was for baby boomers or World War II for the “greatest generation,” through testing how opinions about the war influence patterns of political participation. Methods Using data from an Internet‐based survey of randomly sampled college students at a midwestern state university and the 2008 National Election Studies, we investigate the relationship between disapproval of Bush's handling of the Iraq War and a variety of forms of political participation, including two that are new in this generation: “friending” or joining an online political group or expressing one's political views online. Results We discover that young voters who expressed opposition to Bush's handling of the war in Iraq are more likely to be civically engaged. Conclusion While it is too early to determine how long the effect will last or how it will change over the course of young voters’ life cycles, at least in the short term, it appears opposition to the Iraq War has catalyzed greater levels of political participation.

Campaign-Related Social Networking and the Political Participation of College Students

“…Students who opposed the Bush administration’s handling of the war should have been more energized to participate politically because the election offered the potential for bringing policy change. Moffett, Rice, and Madupalli (in press) discovered that college students who opposed Bush’s handling of the Iraq war are more civically engaged, and Best and Krueger (2005) found that those who participate online are more likely to oppose the war in Iraq. Consequently, we expect that students who oppose the war will be more civically engaged than those who support it.…”