Fourteenth International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

Abstract

America has one of the lowest voter-turnout rates in the developed world (Pew Research, 2018). Voting behavior, which is already low, is then stratified across race, age, and socioeconomic status (Krogstadt et. al. 2017). The youngest portion of America’s electorate, late millennials and early post-millennials, have among the lowest voter turnout across age groups. To better understand this voting bloc, it is imperative to study their relationship to the political system. Moreover, it is important to understand whether a lack of millennial participation is the result of the individual or the result of a fundamentally flawed system. Therefore, the present study seeks to understand the relationship between internal political efficacy, (one’s internal confidence in their ability to participate in the system) external political efficacy, (one’s belief in the ability of their vote to affect the current system at hand), and voting behavior. We surveyed a sample of two hundred and fifty undergraduate students to examine these relationships. While there was a correlation found between high internal and external political efficacy and increased voting behavior, the average participant had a low external political efficacy score and a high internal political efficacy score. We found that the average participant has confidence in themselves to participate in the system but low confidence in the system itself. Ultimately, this study identified a fatal malady of the political system: an educated portion of the electorate with no true belief in the adaptability of its government.