Youth Political Engagement and Democratic Communicative Action in the Digital Public Sphere
Keywords:
Youth Political, Communicative Action, Digital Public SphereAbstract
Digital media have expanded opportunities for young people to participate in political life; however, increased participation does not automatically lead to higher-quality democracy. This study analyzes how Jürgen Habermas’s theory of communicative action can be used to assess young people’s political engagement in Indonesia’s digital public sphere. The study employs a qualitative literature review design based on library research sources. The findings indicate that the democratic quality of young people’s digital political participation can be understood through three interrelated dimensions: epistemic responsibility in producing and disseminating political information; inclusive dialogue grounded in equality, reason-giving, and openness to criticism; and communicative ethics that protect human dignity while constraining domination, intimidation, and personal attacks. These three dimensions confront platform logic driven by virality, echo chambers, filter bubbles, misinformation, identity polarization, and low-cost symbolic participation. The article therefore shifts the analysis of young people’s political participation from the intensity of engagement toward the quality of communicative action. Its principal contribution is a three-dimensional framework for explaining when digital political participation strengthens deliberative democracy and when it becomes distorted by strategic forms of communication
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