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ACTIVE CITIZENSHIP
Andrej Fištravec, ZRSŠ
Talking about »active citizenship« in Europe has become frequent and important because
more and more European citizens do not care about elections. It is becoming quite »normal« that
such »non‐voters« are in majority. This means we have a majority which does not want to participate
in the management of common affairs, and consequently that choices of a minority become
obligations of a majority. It also means that European citizens (trends of behaviour in different age
groups are very similar) with their actions question the entire concept of legitimate government, as
founded by the bourgeois revolutions from the 18th
century onwards. Since every government is a
system of violence over people – citizens, it is important that citizens agree with a government. We
can express our agreement by participating in »politics« ‐ by managing common affairs, through the
forms of direct participation in »politics« by elections (as voters or as politicians), as well as in a wider
sense of the word through various forms of activities within a civil society.
Various European and national institutions try through various programmes to encourage
citizens to develop more active approach to politics. The problem is, however, that increasingly
powerful parallel (real?) centres of social power (i.e. global capital) for their functioning do not
require active citizens, since the latter (as well as a politics which is concerned with common good)
represents disturbance for the functioning of global capital. The interests of capital has often little to
do with the interests of individual citizens, groups of citizens or a public politics which endeavours to
promote our common interests (the interests of profit, for example, comes before the interests of
health or knowledge or truth).
Despite the waning interest in politics in a narrower sense, the interest in politics in a wider
sense has become keener. Citizens are willing to participate in settling of common affairs, yet
without being cheated in the process. Different public polls show that this kind of willingness to
participate in politics in a wider sense is approximately 50 to 100 % higher than actual participation in
political processes in a narrower sense. The potential for participating in politics in a wider sense is
presented in the table below.
Table: Participation in some voluntary organisations in Europe (sums of members and active
members)
Type of organisation
The smallest
share of a
country (in %)
The share of
Slovenia and
other countries
(in %)
The biggest
share of a
country (in %)

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Sports clubs, societies or societies for
outdoor activities (hunters, scouts)
0–9:
GR, PL
20–29:
SI, ES, IL
70–79:
NL
Cultural societies or groups, amateur
groups
0–9:
GR, PL, PT
10–19:
SI, ES, HU, IT
40–49:
BE, DK, SE
Religious or church organisations 0–9 :
GR, IL, IT, PL
10–19:
SI, BE, ES, FR, HU,
PT
40–49:
AT
Social or youth clubs, pensioners’
societies, women’s societies, friends’
societies
0–9:
GR, IT, PL, PT
10–19:
SI, ES, FI, FR, HU,
IL, NL
30–39:
BE, NO, SE
Source: Malnar, B. (2004): the European Social Survey 2002: the final report. Ljubljana: Faculty of Social
Sciences, Institute of Social Sciences, Public Opinion and Mass Communication Research Centre. p.: 25‐28.
Legend: AT‐Austria, BE‐Belgium, CH‐Switzerland, CZ‐the Czech Republic, DE‐Germany, DK‐Denmark, ES‐Spain,
FI‐Finland, FR‐France, GB‐Great Britain, HU‐Hungary, IE‐Ireland, IL‐Israel, IT‐Italy, LU‐Luxemburg, NL‐the
Netherlands, NO‐Norway, PL‐Poland, PT‐Portugal, SE‐Sweden, SI‐Slovenia.