Impact of Erasmus+ Youth Exchanges on the Civic Participation in the European Countries

Abstract

There are numerous studies aimed to examine the socio-economic factors, motivation and youth backgrounds impacting youth civic participation collected by qualitative questionnaires. Simultaneously, there is an empirical literature gap in the examination of youth exchanges and economic country specifications (GDP per capita, youth employment, youth unemployment, expenditures on health, education, R&D, etc.) and their impact on civil society participation index. The aim of this research paper is to: 1) examine the theoretical assumptions of the impact of Erasmus+ youth exchanges on the civil society participation index in the European countries, 2) examine other factors which impact civil society participation index as youth employment, expenditures on education and research and development, GDP per capita, and others. Based on this aim, there is created following research question: Does Erasmus youth exchanges impact civil society participation in the European countries? Which are the other factors which impact it? This research paper will examine the panel data which will be created from cross-sectional data (economic characteristics of EU countries) and timeline series (their values among the years 2015-2020) via OLS regression. Data to be used in this research paper will be collected from Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance about Civil society participation index and other economic factors related to the EU countries participating in the Erasmus+ youth exchanges will be downloaded from EUROSTAT. These data will be connected to Erasmus+ youth exchanges data got from Erasmus+ dissemination platform. The findings of this research paper will provide information about the impact of Erasmus+ youth exchanges and other economic factors in civic participation. Results will show how all these factors influence the willingness of people to participate in civic society.