Fear and Anxiety Elderly in Political Participation
Irwan Putra and Karim Suryadi
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Dr. Setiabudi Street No. 229, Bandung, Indonesia
Keywords: Political Participation, Anxiety and Fear, Elderly.
Abstract: This study determined fear and anxiety felt by elderly in political participation which is based on aging. Social
engagement change in elderly is marked by self-withdrawal and self-isolated from their environment. Self-
withdrawal in elderly will effect on the decrease in political participation among elderly. The main problem
of this study is to understand and reveal fear and anxiety in political participation. This study uses qualitative
approach and make phenomenology as research method and use Huntington and Nelson’ grand theory of
political participation as analysis tool. Result show that reveals lack of meaningfulness, appreciation and
support toward elderly in political participation so it invokes fear and anxiety among elderly to use their right
as citizen. Even though elderly have political experience, political knowledge and active in observing and
searching information related to politics, but they are still reluctant to do their duty as citizen.
1 INTRODUCTION
Aging is something normally occurs in living things
not exception human. In Indonesia, older people are
called elderly. Someone can be categorized as elderly
if his/her age is over 60 years old. To categorize that
someone is included in elderly category. Indonesia
use age approach or age limit namely age over 60
years old, because it is based on life expectancy
standard of Indonesian people.
The aging process will change one’s physical
appearance, health and psychology. In the old age
period, the health change in physic is more visible as
a result of aging process. That change can be divided
into two stages, namely: psychical change and motor
change. Psychical change comprise change in
learning, thinking, creativity, memory, sense of
humor whereas change in motor aspect occur in
speed, strength, learning new skill, and numbness,
Hurlock (2002). The physical and motor condition
decline because elderly is included into group at a risk
(McMurray, 2004; Gallo et al., 1988).
One risk factor of physical and motor condition
decline is social engagement which influences action
and activity of elderly in the environment they live.
Havighurst and Albracht (1953) explained that the
age increase make someone will gradually start to
disengage his/her self from social life or known as
disengagement theory. This disengagement theory
explains that there is period in human life in which
human will self-withdraw, and it is inevitable and
marked by interaction which is reduced between
elderly and the other people surrounding him/her.
Even though basically, withdrawal will give
opportunity to individual to prepare his / her self
in facing disease, disability and death (Logan and
Dawkins, 1987).
Elderly reluctance to participate in political
activity is compounded by various kind of alienation
done by family and society toward elderly. This is a
result of social value shift in society toward
individualist society order, so elderly is less respected
and appreciated, and being marginalized in society
life which is finally become ignored (Hardywinoto
and Tony, 2005). The elderly tend to be forbidden to
participate because stereotype that elderly are “less
good” to participate in political activity, even many
families who want that elderly only focus on heavenly
life and worship than political affairs.
In certain stage, self-withdrawal among elderly in
political activity or political problems also effects on
fulfilling needs of elderly as citizen. It is seen that
many citizens fail in political participation, it is
because political literature which is rigid, namely
‘because they are incapable, they don’t want it, or
because there is none who asked for it” (Brady et al.,
1995). Whereas, political participation will have done
by elderly contributed to their self-development and
community and will help community in struggling for
their needs and interest, such as health and welfare.
130
Putra, I. and Suryadi, K.
Fear and Anxiety Elder ly in Political Participation.
In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Sociology Education (ICSE 2017) - Volume 2, pages 130-135
ISBN: 978-989-758-316-2
Copyright © 2018 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved

Besides, elderly have potential which can be
optimized and contributed to support nation and state
development. It is important to encourage elderly to
be active and participative in social life, share
political knowledge and political experience they
possess to young generation. It is crucial, because
political experience and political participation of
elderly is informal learning for public how to become
good and smart citizen. Informal learning refers to
knowledge and attitude acquired by individual from
their experience, which exceed formal learning
(Schugurensky and Myers, 2008).
1.1 Theoretical Study
1.1.1 Political Participation
Political participation in elderly is categorized
unique, in which in this age they have been mature
from knowledge and experience aspect as the age
increased (Campbell, 1971), but in the same way,
they are reluctant to participate in social political life
and there is fear or anxiety which position elderly to
self-withdraw from social life (Havighurst and
Albracht, 1953). Whereas, political participation
theory proposed by Huntington and Nelson (1994)
said that activity by private citizens designed to
influence government decision-making. Participation
may be individual or collective, organized or
spontaneous, sustained or sporadic, peaceful or
violent, legal or illegal, effective or ineffective,
demand citizen not exception elderly to take part in
influencing government decision making.
Political participation activity can be explained in
four activities, namely: voting, campaign activity,
political community, and personal contact.
Conceptually, each four dimensions of political
participation usually involve various types of people
who experience different problems. From this
perspective, each explanation about political
participation in elderly should combine the idea that
sub group among ages can show different pattern
from political participation (Verba et al., 1971).
Today, it is very hard for elderly to be active in
politics in four political dimensions proposed by Verb
et al. Only some of them who are still active in
political participation and this is because they had
been active before when they were adult. For the rest,
elderly only active in voting dimension which is still
stabile until old age (Glenn and Grimes, 1968;
Jennings and Markus; Verba and Nie, 1972).
Participation activity in public life strongly
contributes to personal development in the future.
Today, public are still less sensitive to elderly
regarding political rights of elderly, and it is coupled
with lack of elderly knowledge related to political
problems. There are only few representatives from
their social group in governmental institutions or
nongovernment institutions and maybe political party
so they are not focused intensely on elderly in giving
socialization regarding their rights and political
participation which can influence government
decision making (Huntington and Nelson, 1994).
Finally, the sacred goal of political participation is
to influence government decision making, in order
that each decision made by government can facilitate
or answer the problems in citizen life. Even a
perception of citizen no exception elderly which is in
accord with prediction that this population will be
continued to increases each year and they will
influence government policy.
1.1.2 Elderly
Aging population had become one trend of world
issue as world population increased. It is interesting
to study social political dynamic of elderly
particularly regarding their involvement and
participation in political arena. The characteristic of
this social group is very unique, in which this elderly
group are not homogenous group, and old age is
experienced in different ways. In fact, finally
everybody will experience aging, so it will invoke
resistance to accept the aging as normal process
(Potter and Perry 2005). There is elderly who view
the aging process with submission, resistance,
rebellion and despair, so it will accelerate the process
of their own physical and mental condition decline.
Old age or often called as senescence is a period
in which people can feel satisfied with their success.
But for some people, this period is the beginning of
regression (Neugarten, 1975; Chalhoun, 1995) which
is marked by change or decline in body function
(Papalia, 2001). It is added by political knowledge
which is reduced when reaching elderly periods
because cognitive ability decline which often occur in
senescence (Lau and Redlawsk, 2006; Riggle and
Johnson, 1996). It is which trigger anxiety and fear
among elderly in political participation and their
family indirectly exclude elderly from social life by
constraining elderly access in outside.
In its development, the ideal result/consequence
of aging process which is most generally used to
explain what is called as “a successful aging” is
expressed by R.J. Havighurst in 1961. The concept
of successful aging is center of gerontology, and the
article written by Havighurst is emerged as concept in
first issue about Gerontologist publication (Bearon, et
Fear and Anxiety Elderly in Political Participation
131

al, 1996). The definition of the concept of success
itself result in ambiguity because there is no
definition which is accepted well or model of
successful aging which had been tested so far.
Havighurst (1961) defined it as “adding life to the
years” and “obtain life satisfaction”. Palmore (1995)
in encyclopaedia about aging processed, expressed
that a comprehensive definition about successful
aging is combined with survival and health.
There are social gerontology theories which
become the basic for the concept of successful aging,
among other is first aging theory proposed by
Cumming and Henry with “disengagement theory”
(1961) which stated that in the process/series of
normal aging, someone is gradually withdraw or
disengage from social role as natural response to
ability and interest decline, and motivation decline to
participate in social life. In this model, someone who
is successful in his/her old age will fully resign from
work or family life and will be satisfied by only
sitting in the chair or self-isolated and doing passive
activity to prepare the death (Bearon, 1999). The
others argued that the older adult participate in
political process as one way to maintain the control
over their life.
2 METHODS OF STUDY
This study uses qualitative approach. Qualitative
approach is type of study which generate finding
without aided by statistic procedure in its analysis
(Strauss and Corbin, 2007; Basrowi and Suwandi,
2008). The rational of using qualitative approach in
this study is because the researcher wants to
investigate the very complex mut
This study use phenomenology method. The
phenomenology method is viewpoint which
emphasize focus on human experiences or what is
called as intentionality which connect consciousness
process with the object which become center of
attention to see and understand the meaning and
unique context of individual experience related to
certain phenomena (Almanshur and Ghony, 2012;
Herdiansyah, 2012; Smith et al., 2009; Prastowo,
2011).
According to Polkinghorne, phenomenology is “a
phenomenological study describes the meaning of the
lived experience for several individuals about a
concept or the phenomena. Phenomenologist explore
the structure of consciousness in human experiences”
(Creswell, 2010). Phenomenology is not interested to
study causality aspects in an event, but trying to
understand on how people do experience and its
meaning of experience for themselves (Watt and Berg
1995). Basically, phenomenology not try to seek
right and wrong opinion, but to reduce human
consciousness in understanding the phenomena
appears in front of them. Therefore, the
phenomenology theory which is understood by
human is reflection of transcendence experience and
understanding about the meaning (Kuswarno, 2009).
2.1 Participant and Site of Study
Subject and participant in this study are selected by
using criteria which is commonly used in qualitative
study. There are some criteria used to determine the
subject of study, namely setting, actors, events and
process (Miles and Huberman, 2007; Alwasilah,
2003). As for criteria of subject in this study will be
suited with need and necessity in field. The subjects
of study to obtain data in this study are as follow table
1:
Table 1: The subjects of study to obtain data in this study.
Numb
Informant
Total
1
Elderly
15 persons
2
Academia
2 persons
3
Political party
2 persons
4
LSM (community
empowerment organization)
1 person
In total, the subjects who will be taken by
researcher as participant in this study are 20
informants. This study is located in Aceh Province
and will take four Regencies as site of study, namely
Bener Meriah Regency, Central Aceh Regency,
North Aceh Regency and Banda Aceh City. The
reason to select these sites is because researchers
think that these four Regency/City can represent
entirely total distribution in Aceh province, tribal
diversity and can represent elderly who live in rural
area and urban area.
3 FINDING AND DISCUSSION
3.1 Results and Finding
Individual or citizen’s political participation will be
reduced when entering elderly period. Elderly feel
anxiety and fear when they join to participate in
political activity in society. It is because there are still
many stereotype views prevailed in society and
family that elderly need not to participate in political
activities. Elderly think that they are not meaningful
and respected. Whereas elderly still want to
ICSE 2017 - 2nd International Conference on Sociology Education
132

participate in political activity such as general
election and local government leader election because
they still want to use their political right as citizen.
According to some elderly, so far family and
society consider that elderly need not to participate in
political activity, because their physical and motor
ability has been declined drastically, even though not
all elderly experience that, because some elderly is
still healthy in physical and motor particularly elderly
who live in rural area. Even for some elderly,
participating in political activities make them feel
respected and meaningful and contribute to
progression and change of society, nation and state in
the future.
3.2 Discussion
Hawari (2004) explained that today there is value
shift in society. They think that the existence of
elderly not give much benefit anymore, even they are
often perceived negatively as the burden of family
and society. Many elderlies who feel that they are not
meaningful anymore and feel despair and worthless
in living their life (Langle and Probs, 2000). Of
course, this perception will influence life quality and
meaningfulness of elderly in the middle of society,
whereas elderly is a symbol of wisdom. Elderly
population rank highest social class who should be
respected by young people (Bernardine, 2007).
In certain stage, the appreciation and respect to
elderly will influence on elderly health themselves,
because the meaningfulness of life also related to
body function in elderly. Because anyone who has
reason (why) to live will be able to overcome life
problem with every way (how) (Nietzsche in Frankl,
2003). Elderly should be encouraged and involved in
all activities, including political participation in order
that they are felt respected and have value in society
environment. According to Thomae in Monks et al.
(2004), the elderly image is interaction result between
individual and his/her environment. Elderly who are
marginalized and felt less respected will suffer
physical and mental decline process more quickly and
it will cause them despair and feel that their life has
over even not meaningful anymore, so slowly they
will self-withdraw from society life, even nation and
state life.
Elderly reluctance to participate in political
activity because constriction set by their family,
because of their physical and motor condition decline
make their family feel worry about them or afraid that
something unexpected happen to elderly, then family
or adult often constrain their activity and desire to be
out of home, even participate in political activity. It
is one negative effect of eastern culture on elderly
even though basically they want to maintain elderly
self-esteem, but sometimes family members become
over protective (Hodkinson, 1976). Even though
elderly have political experience, political knowledge
and active in observing and searching information
related to leader candidate, but they are reluctant to
do their duty as citizen.
Besides, stereotype view prevailed in society, that
is stereotype views toward elderly which make
elderly become apathies to political activity and cause
them feeling alienated. The widespread distrust will
invoke cynicism even alienation of citizen (Suryadi,
2009). Even young people often set forward the
slogan ‘it is the time the young people lead’ as their
desire to seize the control from older people, because
they think that political style of older people had been
out of date and not represent anymore the society in
large, and older people generally need longer time to
process information than young people (Lau and
Redlawsk, 2006; Mata et al., 2007; Riggle and
Johson, 1996; Hartley, 2006).
Even though in some occasion, elderly get social
support in order that they return to normal life, by
participating in political activity but there are many
elderlies who are difficult to understand that social
support. Not all elderly is able to understand the
social support from other people, so even though they
had received social support but they are still
unsatisfied, which is showed by grumbling, feeling
upset and disappointed. Even in certain stage, social
support for elderly is given for political interest, to get
sympathy and support from elderly. After that
mission is achieved, this social support to elderly is
ignored again. Even the lack of attention toward
elderly make them merely to become political object,
not political subject. Whereas citizens’ discourse
literacy about political problems and citizenship and
prosperity become the anchor of civil society
(Suryadi, 2009).
Many elderlies who possess good political
knowledge to participate in political activity, because
citizens who have good political knowledge tend to
be interested and participated in government (Delli
and Keeter, 1997). As a result of the problems above
make elderly reluctant, fear and anxious to participate
in political activity. Whereas, elderly participation in
politic is very expected because it is become a
benchmark that there is no gap in democracy system
for all citizens.
Political participation of elderly also should be
seen in the context of meaningfulness and the
important meaning of old age in the context of human
existence, in which elderly who suffer physical and
Fear and Anxiety Elderly in Political Participation
133

motor condition decline can be given opportunity to
grow and develop and also dedicated to society,
nation and state. Because it is in the stage of final
development that human particularly elderly want to
live more qualified and meaningful. Senescence is
a period in which people can feel satisfaction with
their success (Neugarten and Chalhoun in Raymont,
2011).
Become someone who is meaningful in life seems
crucial when entering elderly period (Wong, 2007).
Because elderly who have the meaning of life or
considered as meaningful can see the larger goal,
when they feel to take more control then they can
direct their life and show strong desire to get the better
life (Reker and Woo, 2011). The life meaningfulness
of elderly relate to perception about life quality
(Alavi, 2011). Elderly who feel that their life is
meaningful will have higher life expectancy age and
better life compared with elderly who feel that their
life is not meaningful.
4 CONCLUSIONS AND
RECOMMENDATIONS
The aging process will cause a person to experience
changes, whether physical, health or psychological.
Decreased physical and motor conditions will affect
the actions and activities of the elderly in the
neighborhood, one of them by starting apathetic
elderly to political activities. This happens as a result
of the change of social values of society that leads to
the order of individualistic society, so that the elderly
is less respected and respected even out of the
community life. The reluctance of the elderly to
participate in political activities is also due to the
stereotype of 'less elegant' elders participating in
political activities, even many families who direct and
want the elderly only focus on the life of the hereafter
and worship rather than political problems. The
political participation of the elderly will contribute to
the development of themselves and their communities
and will help the community in fighting for their
needs and interests, such as health and welfare. In
addition, the elderly has the potential that can be
optimized and donated to support the progress of the
nation and state. Encouraging the elderly active and
participative in social community also sharing their
knowledge and political experience to the younger
generation.
This assumption will certainly affect the quality
of life and meaningfulness of the elderly in society,
whereas the elderly are symbols of wisdom. The
elderly should be encouraged and engaged in all
activities, including political participation in order for
the elderly to feel valued and valued in the
community. The elderly who are marginalized and
feel less appreciated will accelerate in the process of
physical and mental degeneration and will make them
despair and feel that their life has ended does not even
mean, so that they will slowly withdraw from the life
of society, even the life of nation and state.
In addition, the stereotypical view that developed
in the community, the stereotypical views on elderly
that make elderly become apathetic to political
activities and cause them alienated. Result is
problems cause elderly reluctant, fear and anxiety to
participate in political activities. Whereas the
participation of the elderly in politics is expected
because it becomes the benchmark not the distance of
the democratic system with all citizens.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
If any, should be placed before the references section
without numbering.
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