Student: Micha Rybacki

Course: Democratic Participation and Representation of Citizens in the EU

Lecturer: prof. Magdalena Musia-Karg
University: Adam Mickiewicz University in Pozna
Academic year: 2014/2015, summer semester

Assignment no. 3
Active citizenship
Active citizenship can be defined as participation in various activities based on
freedoms, rights and responsibilities derived from legal affiliation to the state. Therefore, an
active citizen is a person aware of his or her freedoms, rights and responsibilities as a
member of the state, who makes use of these freedoms and rights as well as fulfils given
responsibilities in order to achieve not only individual, but also societal goals in the way of
participation in political, economic, social or cultural life.
As a result, an active citizen of a democratic state knows that he/she is free to express
himself/herself and has the right to vote, assembly and associate, utilising them in a
comprehensive way, e.g. by electing representatives, partaking in referendums and running
for offices, as well as getting involved in both organised and spontaneous social initiatives
like public meetings and discussions, rallies, demonstrations, volunteer activities and social
work independently or within social movements and various civil society organisations.
Analogically, a member of a non-democratic state may engage in similar activities in order to
secure the aforementioned freedoms and rights.
Active citizenship is necessary to maintain an already existing democracy or to
introduce one if its nonexistent. Thus, active citizens are needed in undemocratic states to
move the focal point of sovereignty from the rulers to the ruled. Without active citizenry the
great waves of democratisation in the world described by Samuel Huntington would be
impossible to take place. On the other hand, solid and fully-fledged democracies also require
active participation of its members comprising a public sphere which is necessary to sustain
democratic deliberation as well as to keep the authorities accountable for their acts and
close to the people. Consequently, the retreats from democracy acknowledged by
Huntington resulted not only from specific global settings unfavourable to democracy, but
also ensued due to the insufficiency of democrats, i.e. active citizens.

The author of this short text is personally involved in the activity of the European
Centre of Citizens Partnership (ECCP), a Pozna-based non-governmental organisation
which aims at enhancing active citizenship through facilitating international and
intergenerational dialogue. In order to meet this end, it cooperates with several local,
regional and European entities of both governmental and non-governmental character in
order to implement projects raising the notion of common European civic society. The ECCP
can be considered as an example of active citizenship and the desire to make this value more
widespread.

Declining participation in EP elections

Direct elections to the European Parliament has been held since 1979. Every five years,
however, the turnout is lower: the first time it amounted nearly 62% of people eligible to
vote, while in 2014 the percentage equalled only 42,6. The weakening interest in this
undertaking is visible among all member-states of the European Union, while it is especially
striking in the New Europe consisting of mostly post-communist countries which joined
the EU after 2004, 2007 and 2013 enlargements. According to the authors calculations, the
average turnout among states which joined the club since 2004 in 2014 EP elections was
33,5% (or only 28,7% if we exclude such solid democracies like Malta and Cyprus from this
group) comparing to the EU average of 42,6%.
Scholars enumerate various reasons for this situation. Malkopoulou (Lost Voters.
Participation in EU Elections and the Case for Compulsory Voting. CEPS Working Document
No. 317/July 2009) argues that people are generally not interested in second order
elections which they consider less important than national ones. Moreover, she points out
that the European Parliament itself still plays a relatively limited role in EU decision making
that is essentially too complicated for an average citizen which factor in turn is connected to
the general lack of familiarity with EU institutional structure and the fact that the EP agenda
contains numerous issues that seem to be too complicated for an average person. Bilska
(European Elections in the New Member States. Explaining Differences in Turnout by Media
Coverage; forthcoming) also adds to it the lack of tradition of voting and the general
instability of political scenes in these states.
It is important to emphasise that voter turnout in the post-communist new EU
member-states is generally insignificant due to a low level of trust to authorities in general
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and a social apathy which is a leftover from socialist times when the ruling parties aimed at
discouraging people from engaging in any political and social activities which were
considered risky for the status quo imposed by external powers. Therefore people from
these countries still partially embody so-called homo sovieticus legacy.
Moreover, the post-communist countries of the Central, Eastern and Southern Europe
(CESE) are generally worse-off economically than their Western European counterparts,
therefore their citizens tend to express a more simplified attitude towards institutions they
perceive as very abstract and far away. Consequently, the cost of participating in a vote
considered as second order is much higher for worse situated people from CESE countries
than for statistically better-off Old EU inhabitants.
What is more, the EU lacks a pan-European public sphere that would establish salient
links between the ruling and the ruled. Therefore an important connection that exists on a
national stage is missing on the EU level. It results in the low level of familiarity with EU
policies and mechanisms among people who are still getting used to the membership in the
Union, as well as in the lack of the conviction that the MEPs can be effectively controlled
once they are elected.
As mentioned before, the shortage of active citizens may bring negative consequences
for any democracy, including the nascent one on the EU level. Consequently the Union may
face the deepening of its already existing democratic deficit, the undermining of legitimacy
and the empowerment of extreme political groups which usually posses more mobilised
electorates. Therefore the EU should strive to simplify its mechanisms and agendas for
ordinary citizens, encourage them to vote by showing the importance of this act through
comprehensive media campaigns, and continuously support bottom-up initiatives aimed at
strengthening the notion of European citizenship.