The personal efficacy of party youth wing members

Although young people are said to be increasingly withdrawing from participation in political parties, some still join because they believe they can influence them to achieve change. We examine this sense of personal efficacy among contemporary youth wing members and ask: how is youth wing members’ personal efficacy associated with their activity levels and membership length, and with intra-party democracy and youth wing integration into the party? To do so, we combine the Political Party Database with data from the YOUMEM project, the largest cross-national survey of youth wing members conducted to date, covering ∼3600 members of 12 party youth wings in six democracies. We find that higher levels of personal efficacy are associated in particular with individuals being more active; being in a youth wing which is well integrated into the party; and in a context of strong intra-party democracy. Our results thus suggest how parties can foster young members’ personal efficacy and nurture democratically engaged citizens.