Monitoring Active Citizenship in the European Union: the Process, the Results and initial Explanations

Abstract

- This article is a descriptive account from an insider's perspective of the complex European process of the development of indicators on active citizenship. From this position, the article explains the process behind the development of two composite indicators that have been used to measure progress on active citizenship in Europe; The Active Citizenship Composite Indicator and the Youth Civic Competence Composite Indicator. The article details the results of these indexes for European Union countries and regions inside Europe. In addition, the article examines the differences between the results of the composite indicators, with correlations found between competence and action for Northern and Western European countries but not for Southern and Eastern European Countries. Using these results it discusses possible steps forward in the development of indicators on active citizenship looking towards new data from the IEA International Citizenship and Civic Education study. Keywords active citizenship, civic education, composite indicators, European Union, political participation.