The characterization of Active Citizenship in Europe

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 report 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 statistical 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. At the individual level we can say that the active citizen is working age, male or female, and about 48-64 years old the age of the baby boomers. They typically have a high level of education and are also active in lifelong learning. An active citizen typically has a clear idea of the importance of religion in their life and they typically attend religious service. He or She lives in the countryside and has a good income. Concerning the media, she or he watches TV a moderate amount of time and reads newspapers. In terms of employment she or he does not work in the labor market but is also not looking for a job which gives them the time to participate. Conversely, the persons who are the least active are young people, living in big cities, with lower levels of education who are not participating in any lifelong learning activities. They are typically working in the labour market but with a low income and limited responsibility. They do not hold a strong position about the importance of the religion in their life and they do not attend any religious services apart from special occasions. They spend a considerable amount of time every day watching TV but they do not read newspapers. In total the results of this research follow previous literature in this field; however, what is new from this research is the relationship between lifelong learning and active citizenship. The bivariate statistics showed some intriguing findings concerning country differences in Europe, for example there are differences in the levels of active citizenship concerning gender. In Nordic countries women participated more than men but in southern Europe and Anglo-Saxon countries men participated more than women. For continental countries there were no significant differences. There was no common trend from the bivariate statistics across the European countries for the place of residence. In Denmark, Belgium and Great Britain the most active are people are those who live in big city, whilst in Finland, Italy and Spain the most active citizens live in suburbs and in Luxemburg and Sweden the most active citizens live in the countryside. There were common European trends for the bivariate statistical results for Education and age. There was a positive significant effect for each level of education and for each year of education in each country considered in Europe and lifelong learning was significant and positive in all countries considered. The age level of the active citizen was also similar in each country considered peaking somewhere after the age of 44 and at the lowest level in the earliest years 18-24 and over 65. In terms of media usage there were general trends across Europe but also some specific country differences for the bivariate statistics. The general trend is that a small amount of TV is needed but not too much. The amount required depends on the country with Spain and the Netherlands having the highest threshold between 0.5-1 hour of television per day. In terms of radio the more the better across the whole of Europe but in Austria the most active are people who listen to radio more than 2.5 hours, while in