Youth Democratic Political Identity and Disaffection: Active Citizenship and Participation to Counteract Populism and Polarization in Barcelona

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The article constitutes a relevant contribution to the subject under study. The literature review is relevant in this field. The design of the study is in line with the objectives of the study and the results are very clearly presented and described.

My comments focus more on the discussion. In this section, the authors could state more clearly and more explicitly, what could be some of the most important implications of the results obtained with respect youth political participation and active citizenship in relation to the populism and polarisation that we are experiencing in a globalized world. Or how populism and polarisation could be negatively affecting young people's political identities. In fact, we can find this relationship in the title of the article: "Youth political identity and democratic disaffection: Active citizenship and participation to counteract populism and polarization"

That is, to what extent active citizenship and youth participation in community-based organisations and non-traditional participatory structures can contribute to combating populism and social polarisation. And especially compared with those young people who are not actively involved in such horizontal and comunity structures, in contrast with young people participating in this study, or how populism and polarisation could be negatively affecting young people's political identities.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

A deep and honest thank you for your comments that indeed help improve the text.

We've tried to improve the discussion section with more comments on the relationship between youth activists and polarisation & populism.

With our distinguished compliments,

The Authors

Reviewer 2 Report

Well-written and structured paper, no substantial remarks. 

Since almost all conclusions are based on an empirical study conducted in Barcelona, I believe that it could find place in the (sub)title and/or the keywords of the article.

From a conceptual point of view, I detect a risk of a (comfortable but misleading) identification of politics with democracy. Thus, "political identity" in the text clearly means "democratic political identity". Another example: non-democratic views seem to be referred as a "lack of ideology" rather than as a lack of democratic ideology. Etc.

It does not follow from the empirical data how exactly populism and polarization could be counteracted (which is promised in the title of the work). One may guess that youth active citizenship paves the way but perhaps further argumentation is needed.

Finally: Regarding the methodologies, isn't there a risk of extrapolation of results from the most active people in the Barcelona youth sector on the totality of community-engaged youth people in the city (analysis is based on the questionnaires returned - do we have information on the profile of those who did not choose to respond)?

The author(s) might decide whether they would address some of these concerns in short.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

A deep and honest thank you for your comments that indeed help improve the text.

We have refined the paper's title according to your proposals, we've taken good care of the terms "democratic political identity" as well as "lack of democratic ideology", and we've tried to improve the discussion section with more comments on the relationship between youth activists and polarisation & populism.

With our distinguished compliments,

The Authors