Growing cohesive societies: exploring the link between social exclusion and active citizenship
Facilitating Active citizenship is one of the European Commission's strategies for
increasing social cohesion and reducing the democratic deficit across Europe
within the context of the wider Lisbon process. In this context, this paper provides
an evidence base for policy development, identifying the socio-demographic
characteristics and determinants of active citizens and those who for one reason or
another participate much less. The report provides a detailed identikit of the active
citizen from 2002 across 14 European countries Austrian, Belgium, Germany,
Denmark, Spain, Finland, United Kingdom, Greece, Italy, Luxemburg,
Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden (the complete dataset available for this
research is only available for the majority of old member states of the European
Union and European Economic Area). The results of our analysis, based on a
multilevel regression model, provide a clear identikit of the active citizen in Europe
and the drivers of the phenomenon are identified both at the individual and at the
country level. The picture provided is quite interesting and shows that the level of
Active Citizenship is higher in countries with a higher level of GDP with a more
equal distribution of income and a more heterogeneous religious climate.
Moreover, at the individual level, the strongest determinant of active citizenship is
education and participation in lifelong learning activities which can permit some
action to policymaker in order to foster the participation in civil society of the the
new generations which quite passively do not take part in the democratic life of our
societies.
SALTELLI Andrea;
MASCHERINI Massimiliano;
2010-06-07
Società Italiana di. Economia Demografia e Statistica
JRC58545
0035-6832,
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