Beyond the blame game: Examining 'the discourse' of youth participation in Australia

Youth sociological research has focused on the ways that `moral panics¿ and `risk discourses¿ have been used to discipline young people. This paper discusses `declining youth participation¿, primarily in an electoral context, as a risk discourse resulting in a moral panic. Instead of focusing on defending young people from charges of disassociation and apathy (the approach most common in youth sociological studies) it instead looks at how `the literature¿ on youth participation has evolved. Within this literature it examines construction of the `problem¿ of young people¿s lack of participation, Australia¿s democracy and the young person accused of not participating in this democracy. Borrowing loosely from Foucault I examine this discursive regime, exposing how power operates within it. I argue that it is necessary to move beyond accusing or defending young people and to shift the focus of this discourse from a moral focus to one on `telos¿ and where democracy and `the state¿ are the foci.