Politics, according to Generation Z: 22% of voters choose Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Feminism and "Elephants"

A usual exercise in the technique of
discussion group In public opinion studies, participants are asked to represent a theme with the figure of an animal. In this case, the interviewees were between 16 and 22 years old and had to illustrate a candidate. The answers surprised the researchers, used to hearing about hyenas and snakes. Instead, the kids chose elephants and whales. "Strong beings, who advance despite the vicissitudes, but are not aggressive," they badyzed.

This year, 22% of the register was qualified to vote in the

the elections

Presidential nationals will be part of the "generation Z" (or "centenarians", born between 1994 and 2010), whose best-known feature is its first contact with digital, but it is not the only one.

Since last year, in the face of elections, some consultants have conducted studies on how young voters perceive politics. In April, Ipsos badyzed and defined the ideal characteristics of a candidate. The results, presented yesterday to the press, are already in the hands of the main political forces. While Aresco had done, last year, a similar study. Meanwhile, the main pollsters cut age by section. What do young people think about politics in general? And how will political spaces of this age be voted?

Alexandria, Bernie, Ofelia, Emma

In all the groups badyzed in the Ipsos study, it turned out that younger voters prefer the leadership of a woman, young (35 to 45 years old), to "social vocation", issue career of social worker, right to social orientation. o Education sciences with a doctorate in public education, preferably from within the country, who has achieved his position by his own merit (in his words, "this has been done in low").

Concretely, if they were free to choose, their favorite political leaders are not

Cristina Kirchner

or

Mauricio Macri.

Or

Maria Eugenia Vidal

or

Axel Kicillof.

Instead, they admire
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (the youngest woman in history to be elected to the US Congress), a

Emma Watson

(actress and British activist), Ofelia Fernández (feminist activist, student leader of the movement for legal abortion and candidate in the city's parliament for the Patria Grande Front) and
Bernie Sanders (socialist senator from Vermont who lost the 2016 Democratic primary against Hillary Clinton and who relaunched his candidacy for 2020).

The work was based on six
discussion group made in April in the city and the metropolitan area. The participants were relieved according to their ideological profiles, with samples integrated equally by young people who tend to identify with Kirchnerism, as with Macrismo, and neither. In addition, a semi-structured questionnaire was conducted throughout the country, between February and March, with the population over 18 years of age entitled to vote.

Beyond their ideological differences, they concluded to Ipsos that Generation Z understood politics in a general way as an "action" based on "links" with "the other". They appreciate it as long as they maintain a dynamic and "plural, flexible, global, frontal and natural" (that is, not forced) discourses. In addition, they appreciate those who "explicitly admit their mistakes".

De Ipsos pointed out that "the Z" are children of a generation who no longer believed in traditional politics, political parties and references. Gender equality is one of their main causes and they are considered feminist. They want leaders who respect diversity, the environment and social equity. But they do not trust traditional politics to carry out these causes. Instead, they believe in "micropolitics". Both digital and badog.

Their main concern coincides with that of the total population in most surveys: first, the problems of the economy. In particular, unemployment and inflation. But they place poverty second, unlike the total census, which places it in third or fourth place. In fact, consulted on the most important attribute that should have the next president, one in two respondents replied: "You must ask questions about the poor."

Age-based badyzes are a center of interest for political forces because of the percentage they represent. For this reason, consultants are using more and more qualitative techniques to better understand them and know how to "talk" them during campaigns. In the
discussion groupAlthough there are fewer samples, they are also more receptive and deeper: for example, instead of asking them if they badociate politics with democracy, they are asked what concepts they badociate with politics.

In October, the consulting firm Aresco also launched a study based on six
discussion group in the AMBA, although with a wider age range (up to 29 years). Respondents also defined politics as "action", but corruption has emerged as a problem that "distorts political practices". The study also showed that they badociate the concept of "politics" with people: Cristina, Macri, Kirchner, Perón. As well as images and representations: costume, government, congress, laws, Constitution, rights, Casa Rosada, money management and political parties.

An badysis of an even wider range (between 16 and 35 years old), the consultant Gustavo Cordoba y Asociados, showed that "their representation is diluted, since they do not feel represented by parties, to d & # 39; affiliation ".

"Activism has taken the form of activism and political participation has more to do with advocacy for causes or ideas, which are not always what the media agenda judges relevant and barely penetrate the political agenda. " These young people are not "indigenous". supporters, "were neither born nor raised during militant or political parties, but they have a high social commitment and, although they do not consider it so, deep ideological content, in addition to the Activism, "says the badysis.

Reality

Apart from the ideal candidates, with regard to the intention of voting for the youngest, the polls of the last four years gave a better performance to the candidates of Kirchnerism compared to those of Cambiemos, who appears in second place. This year is not an exception, according to the latest available measures.

The factors are multiple. "It's a cultural problem, the left liberalism attracts more and more young people because they have a more revolutionary spirit, we change, because of the place it occupies in the ideological map, it is badociated with the reverse, so it's better they are the voters, "told LA NACION Lucas Romero, of the consulting company Synopsis.

The Association of Political Consultants in Argentina has badociated the success of youth kirchnerism with the "questioning" that has been its strength since its creation in 2003. "In Kirchner's day, discernment was more obvious, with Cristina This has deepened and had an impact on the creation of La Cámpora.Before that, there had been the Young K. There was always research to attract young people, "said Javier Correa, political consultant AdHoc and partner of Asacop.