Publications of the FoundationChallenging the youth
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  • Securing the future of democracy and consolidating its gains thus far, in a world fast degenerating into autocracy, requires an investment in youth democratic agency. There is growing concern that youth are disconnecting from democratic spaces and discourses. This trend is characterised amongst other things by apathy, alienation, and exclusion. This is at the backdrop of growing dissatisfaction with democracy, marked by democratic backsliding globally. Rising authoritarianism, conflict, repression and shrinking of the democratic space, further fuels the youth democratic disconnect. Proponents of democracy and other concerned actors must understand this democratic disconnect currently observed in African countries in terms of its dichotomies, discontinuities and pursue effective interventions in response. The paper contextualises and conceptualises the democratic disconnect of youths. It further analyses the dichotomies of the disconnect and explores the (dis)continuities observed in the democratic agency of youth.