Aktivní občanství a spokojenost s demokracií v Evropě
Active Citizenship and Satisfaction with Democracy in Europe

Summary/Abstract: In this article the authors describe what forms of political participation, outside the electoral process, the populations of twenty-one European countries tend to employ and to what degree. They identify three types of non-electoral political participation: active-conventional, active-demonstrational, and passive participation. Overall non-electoral political participation is considerably lower in the post-communist and Mediterranean countries than in the Western European and Scandinavian countries. In the latter countries the passive type of political participation is clearly a much stronger form of participation than the other two types. Conversely, in the Mediterranean countries passive participation is weaker and is exceeded in places by the active-conventional type of participation. The Mediterranean area is also notable for the unusually strong presence of the activedemonstrational type of participation. The authors also examine the social microand macro-conditions related to these three types of political participation. In conclusion they attempt to address the question of whether there is a connection between political activity and satisfaction with the way democracy works.

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