"Why should we study youth wings?" Well, they're a key entry point into parties, they help us understand party organizations, & they develop party officials, candidates, MPs & prime ministers of tomorrow. Like these lads, who led NSW Young Labor & Young Liberals back in the day. 
But for some reason, we tend to ignore youth wings in much of the work on party organizations and memberships. They rarely get a mention even in some of the best studies on those topics and there is only one (excellent) book focused on youth wings in English (Bruter & Harrison).
So, who are the members of contemporary Australian major party youth wings? Why do they join? Why do they stay? What do they do? What do they want?
Well, first, they're overwhelmingly male in both parties. I knew this already from interviews, but the online survey confirms it.
Well, first, they're overwhelmingly male in both parties. I knew this already from interviews, but the online survey confirms it.
(PS. Given that women are more likely to respond to online surveys, I'm guessing the reality is possibly even more skewed)
(2) They tend to live in state capitals. Given that, according to last census, 63% of Australians aged 24 and under live in state capitals, this suggests that youth wing memberships are disproportionately capital-based.
(3) That last figure in part reflects the fact that Young Labor and Young Liberals are mainly composed of current university students (more on this in a second...)
(4) As I knew already from interviews with youth wing execs, campuses are the only place that both parties' youth wings really do serious recruitment. And, as we can see, most people either joined their youth wings in O-week (i.e. week 1 of university) or after that during uni.
(5) These people are 'joiners'. In the last 5 years, many have also been members of charity organizations, sports clubs etc.
(6) They consider themselves slightly more radical than their parties. When asked to place themselves, and then their parties, on a left-right scale, here's what they said:
(7) What reasons do they give for joining? It's a mixture of policy, social, & personal ambition. Interesting - and relevant, I think, to work of @anika_gauja & @KarinaKosPed - is that women far less likely to say they joined because they wanted to stand as a candidate one day.
(8) Of course, many join youth wings with enthusiasm (much like people with gym memberships or me with Spanish duolingo) and then don't keep at it.
So, to investigate those who stay, in the last part of the survey, I kicked out those who had been members for less than 1 year.
So, to investigate those who stay, in the last part of the survey, I kicked out those who had been members for less than 1 year.
(9) The 'stayers' are pretty active (or so they claim, at least). Just over half say they spend between 1-5 hours per week on youth wing activities OUTSIDE campaign time. And some do more.
(During campaigns, they are the on-call footsoldiers and their lives get put on hold).
(During campaigns, they are the on-call footsoldiers and their lives get put on hold).
(10) They also tend to socialise a lot with one another. Around half of youth wing members also see each other socially at least once per week.
(11) Some see much more of one another. My interviews had already led me to think this, but many of them (note also the gender gap here) have more than just political soul mates in their youth wings.
(12) And the 'stayers' have their eyes on a career. The majority in both youth wings either 'agree' or 'strongly agree' that they would like to work for the party.
(13) Around half of all respondents who have been in youth wing for at least a year also fancy standing as a candidate at some point. Although, again, note the gap between males and females on this.
Right, that's enough slides for ye all. I'm off for a walk down Dún Laoghaire pier. I'll be continuing this research in 2020 &, hopefully, writing it all up into a book afterwards. Suggestions, comments, questions etc all welcome, either here or by email. Slán agus beannacht.
(Footnote: I should have noted respondent numbers. Around 650 Young Labor, around 450 Young Liberals. My sense is that this is not bad, but impossible to confirm since Australian party organisations are SO secretive about membership numbers - even more than European parties).
The above might also be of interest to @James_Sloam, @sarahpickard2, @EmilyRainsford, @ariadne_syd, @PhilippaCollin, @JonTonge, @andymycock1, @PrfAndrwRssll & @smokeycross2000, who have all done interesting work on young people's involvement in parties and politics.
