Constance Flanagan and Peter Levine survey research on civic engagement among U.S. adolescents and young adults. Civic engagement, they say, is important both for the functioning of democracies and for the growth and maturation it encourages in young adults, but opportunities for civic engagement are not evenly distributed by social class or race and ethnicity. Today's young adults, note the au...

abstract The core issue for this study concerns less the social than the political consequences of the rise of knowledge societies; in particular, the capacity of the Internet for strengthening democratic participation and civic engagement linking citizens and government. To consider these issues, Part I summarizes debates about the impact of the Internet on the public sphere. The main influenc...

Recent scholarship and public discourse highlight an apparent waning of civic engagement in the United States. Although the welfare state is generally thought to support democracy by reducing economic inequality, it may paradoxically contribute to political disempowerment of some groups. We examine the effects of state interventions on civic participation among young adults, hypothesizing that ...

Synopsis: The core issue for this study concerns the social and political consequences of the rise of knowledge societies, in particular the capacity of the Internet for strengthening democratic participation, social capital, and civic engagement in Britain. To consider these issues, Part I summarizes debates about the impact of the Internet on the public sphere. The main influence of this deve...

This paper assesses the status of eParticipation within the political system in Austria. It takes a top-down perspective focusing on the role of public participation and public policies on eParticipation. The status of eParticipation in Austria as well as of social and political trends regarding civic participation and its electronic embedding are analysed. The results show a remarkable recent ...

The political participation of immigrants is an important gauge of their integration into thereceiving society more generally, as well as an indicator of the degree of openness of politicalelites towards ethnic minorities. With the restructuring of State intervention and the diffusion ofcivic culture, the role that immigrant associations play in shaping urban social policies has...