“Running from Office” Webinar Review

By Brian Lee

On May 27th 2015, the interns at AAAJ Atlanta participated in a webinar conducted by Jennifer L. Lawless and Richard L. Fox concerning the results of their observational study which are stated in their book “Running from Office: Why Young Americans are Turned Off to Politics” and a subsequent Q&A session.

The authors, Lawless and Fox, presented their study in three segments: A discussion of the status quo, explanations to these current phenomena, and potential resolutions for issues.

First, the authors reported their survey analysis that 89% of youth (defined as high school and college students) have not thought of becoming politicians, a finding they reinforced with GfK Custom Research’s data that youth career goals are excellent predictors of actual future careers, to determine that, with the level of trust in federal government so low, this proves to be a rising issue in American culture today.

Lawless and Fox supported this finding with three potential rationales for avoiding political careers - lack of encouragement within families, lack of exposure in school, and the negative stigma associated with politicians in the media - and supplied four plausible solutions:

1.    YouLead Initiative - Encouraging students to join organizations such as the Peace Corps
2.    PlayStation for Politics - Involving politics within video games to increase exposure
3.    Political Aptitude for College Admissions - Requiring a test of political awareness to attend higher education
4.    GoRun App - Providing access to smartphone applications that show available governmental positions in the vicinity and requirements to run for said offices.

Though I think that this Webinar provided an interesting insight into youth political activism, I believe that the researchers could have used a more comprehensive methodology to procure the same results.

First, because they operationally defined politics as strictly “running and sticking to elected office”, they ignore the myriad of other political activities youth ought to be encouraged to participate in such as voting. It seems more reasonable to interview participants with the notion that it is important to encourage civic engagement in general in comparison to seeking a position of power.

Also, when inquired as to whether race or economic status affected data or exhibited correlation, Lawless and Fox stated that the characteristics they measured for existed “regardless of demographic group” and “economic factors did not show any difference” which overlooked conspicuous confounding variables. I am highly skeptical of this outcome or lack thereof because holistically I believe that race and socioeconomic status would drastically affect whether or not families would discuss politics whether politics would be a concern, and how the environment would portray politicians in general.

Lastly, in my personal opinion, encroaching on video games to add a political feature or supporting a political awareness standard on college applications seems to be an unreasonable inconvenience for youth and a step into an already controversial topic, respectively, which would not bode well with the new electorate.

Instead, an additional curriculum within the education system or an extension of responsibilities inside student-run government associations would entrench a more politically active mindset in today’s youth.