Today, son, all this is yours

摘要

Do Many Australians realise they are being represented at the United Nations by a 22-year-old? In Ontario, Canada's most populous province, is it widely known that students must, by law, be included in high-level talks about education policy? Probably not. Yet involving young people in decision-making—youth engagement, as it is called—is a rising trend in the rich, democratic world. In one sense, young people have long been popular with politicians, happy to kiss babies or address school-children so long as there's a camera around. The kids are our future too, aren't they, nay the leaders of tomorrow. What sort of world do we want to bequeath to them? Etcetera. Seldom, though, do "we" ask them what they'd like to inherit, or bring them in to help shape it. In most countries, those younger than 18 (or so) have no vote and little political weight—until they take to the streets. No wonder that for many politicians the notion of youth engaging with government means sit-ins or riots.