College Students and Politics: A Literature Review

Because of its interest in the political participation of young people, the Kettering Foundation published College Students Talk Politics in 1993 to understand college student political engagement better. The report, based on focus groups with students on campuses around the country, found that most college students believe that politics is not about solving problems; rather, the report found that students saw politics as individualistic, divisive, negative, and often counterproductive to acting on the ills of society.

Since this portrayal of college students' views of politics in the early 1990s, there has been an array of survey research, policy analysis, and commentary that attempts to define, understand, and document the political engagement of young people (Civic Mission of Schools 2003; Keeter et al. 2002; National Commission on Civic Renewal 1998). These studies have found that among the greatest dangers for American democracy is that politics is becoming a spectator sport, an activity that relegates citizens to the sidelines. Perhaps nowhere is this crisis more dramatic than with our youngest generation-a finding consistent with the Kettering Foundation's earlier research on Generation X.

In this review, the authors hope to provide a deeper understanding of current college students' conceptions of and participation in politics through a review of the scholarly literature. They hope that this review will help them refine their research questions and ultimately lead to a larger follow-up research study on college student political engagement. They looked at the existing research with a few questions in mind:

- How do college students understand, define, and view politics, their political engagement, and the work of democracy?

- Are college students politically engaged? How do college students practice politics?

- How can institutions of higher education help foster greater political participation among college students? (authors)