Fight the Youth: Youth bulges and state repression
Abstract
It is generally acknowledged that large youth cohorts or “youth bulges” make countries more susceptible to antistate political violence. Thus, we assume that governments are forewarned about the political demographic threat that a youth bulge represents to the status quo and will attempt to preempt behavioral challenges by engaging in repression. A statistical analysis of the relationship between youth bulges and state repression from 1976 to 2000 confirms our expectation. Controlling for factors known to be associated with coercive state action, we find that governments facing a youth bulge are more repressive than other states. This relationship holds when controlling for, and running interactions with, levels of actual protest behavior. Youth bulges and other elements that may matter for preemptive state strategies should therefore be included in future empirical models of state repression.
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- Authors
- Nordås, R., & Davenport, C.
- Affiliations
- Peace Research Institute Oslo (NO)
- University of Michigan (US)
- Venue
- American Journal of Political Science
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2013-04
- Volume
- 57
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 926-940
- ISSN
- 0092-5853 (ISSN-L)
- 1540-5907
- OpenAlex
- W2155073004
- Cited by
- 208
- References
- 69
- Citations by year
- 2026: 9 · 2025: 12 · 2024: 26 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 37 · 2021: 13 · 2020: 20 · 2019: 11 · 2018: 17 · 2017: 14 · 2016: 17 · 2015: 10 · 2014: 9 · 2013: 1
- FWCI
- 38.20
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- American Journal of Political Science (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Political Conflict and Governance
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Political Violence
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Memory, violence, and history
- Keywords
- youth bulge, state repression, political violence, political demography, youth protest, political instability
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