Youth Wings as Catalysts

This report examine political party youth wings as possible catalyst sites for democratic and anti-democratic masculinities. Youth wings connect youth social worlds to formal party politics: they recruit and mobilize young people, represent youth claims, socialize members into political practice, support camapigns, andd create parthways into party roles, and elected office. Drawing on a theory-informed evidence synthesis, the report brings youth wing scholarship into conversation with work on political masculinities, democratic socialization, political style, and normalization/mainstreaming. The central argument is that youth wings can shape which ways of doing politics becomes credible, desirable, and politically useful. They may cultivate democratic masculinities grounded in care, equality, accountability, pluralism, and non-violent disagreement, or reproduce anti-democratic masculinities organized around hierarchy, exclusion, aggression, and contempt for constraint. The report identifies four intervention points for political party actors, youth wing leaders, organizations that work with and train parties, oversight bodies, and campaign teams.