Occupy Wall Street Movement

The waning of conventional forms of political participation in established democracies, to some extent, is complemented by an expansion of political repertoires—the rise of protest activism and social movement (Norris, 2007; Putnam, 2000; Zukin et.al, 2006). Recent political phenomenon such as Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street movements showed the power of young people in enforcing democratization and social change. The revolutionary war uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya depicted as the tremendous victory of young people in overthrowing the autocratic regimes and brought the wave of democratization in the Arab world. Inspired by the Arab Spring, the Occupy Wall Street is the manifestation of collective awakening, particularly anger young people who dampened by economic inequality. It was marked as a major event in U.S history, which was successful in creating worldwide
attention.
For some, the remarkable declining of political participation among youth, particularly with regards to the traditional forms of participation such as voting and party memberships is a sign of ‘crisis of liberal democracy’ (Russell, 2008) and ‘democratic deficit’ (Norris,
2001). While others argue that there is nothing to worry about, as young people just participating in the different forms of activities than in the past (Zukin et.al, 2006). However, Grasso (2016:1) finds out that the rise of unconventional engagement like protests and new social movement is not a cure for hollowed out democracy and cannot exchange engagement with a functioning representative democratic system. That is because the unconventional participation in Western European democracies will also begin to decline in future as more politically passive generation coming of age in the 1980s and 1990s will replace the those politically active 1960s-1970s baby-boomers generation.