Student Movements as Vectors of Political Change: New Centres of Influence?
- STEAR Editorial Office
- Jun 25
- 1 min read
Democracy, election, and public participation theories have long sought to explain the proliferation of non-formal methods of political participation. This is particularly relevant now in a period characterised by widespread economic stagnation, entrenchment of inequality, and political distance between electorates and governments. All of these serve as strong causal factors for public apathy.
At the same time, the generational divide in wealth, ownership and general electoral representation shows no signs of narrowing; a growing younger political audience seems to be more comfortable with non-formal means of political engagement. Off the back of these conditions, the 2020s have witnessed a profound increase in the salience of student protests, most notably in Indonesia, Serbia and Bangladesh.
As STEAR’s Foreign Policy Team unpacks each of those cases, our aim is to extract general lessons learned from these phenomena. Based on this, we hope to provide more sustainable and future-looking proposals to ameliorate the structural barriers to meaningful and fair political participation by the world’s ever-expanding young generations. Our proposals seek to work through effective and accountable procedures to preserve institutional stability and coherence.
Student Think Tank for Europe-Asia Relations
Editorial Office
2025-2026