Does Formal Education Have an Impact on Active Citizenship Behaviour?

In the European context Active citizenship has been promoted within the education andtraining Lisbon Strategy as a tool to support the continuation of democracy, human rightsand greater social inclusion. In this article we analyse the impact of education on ActiveCitizenship and contribute to the existing debates relating to education levels andparticipation. Our results uniformly suggest that there is a significant democratic returnassociated with formal education. Indeed, using a large sample of individuals from the2006/2007 European Social Survey, we find that education is positively and significantlycorrelated with Active Citizenship behaviour. Tertiary education has by far the biggestimpact and this impact is the strongest for the domain of Protest. The findings are robust tothe introduction of a large set of control variables and to alternative measures ofeducational attainment. How to obtain EU publications Our priced publications are available from EU Bookshop (http://bookshop.europa.eu), where you can placean order with the sales agent of your choice. The Publications Office has a worldwide network of sales agents. You can obtain their contact details bysending a fax to (352) 29 29-42758. The mission of the JRC is to provide customer-driven scientific and technical supportfor the conception, development, implementation and monitoring of EU policies. As aservice of the European Commission, the JRC functions as a reference centre ofscience and technology for the Union. Close to the policy-making process, it servesthe common interest of the Member States, while being independent of specialinterests, whether private or national.LB-NA-2360-EN-C