Growing cohesive societies: exploring the link between social exclusion and active citizenship

Abstract

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.