Občianska participácia: trendy, problémy, súvislosti
Civic Participation: Trends, Issues and Contexts

Summary/Abstract: Civic Participation: Trends, Issues and Contexts. The article focuses on the development of civic participation in Slovakia after the fall of communism in 1989, emphasizing the context of the dominant political culture and the challenges of transition. The authors base their analysis on rich empirical material from representative sociological surveys conducted from 1994 to 2010. Examining trends in the degree of citizens’ engagement in various forms of participation as well as the changes in their potential for future participation, the authors present an empirical typology of the modes of civic participation. They explore the overall and mean rates of participation amongst various socio-demographic and socio-economic groups, which allows them to illustrate the unequal distribution of civic participation in Slovak society. The analysis demonstrates that active citizenship is more frequent amongst individuals who have a stronger interest in politics, who generally are more trusting, and who identify more strongly both with the goals of deliberative democracy and the economic and political changes after 1989. Civic participation is more widespread among individuals associated with various types of voluntary organizations. In the last part of the article, the authors pay particular attention to trends in and determinants of voter turnout after 1990. Sociológia 2010, Vol. 42 (No. 5: 447-491)

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