The STUDIA UNIVERSITATIS BABEŞ-BOLYAI issue article summary

The summary of the selected article appears at the bottom of the page. In order to get back to the contents of the issue this article belongs to you have to access the link from the title. In order to see all the articles of the archive which have as author/co-author one of the authors mentioned below, you have to access the link from the author's name.

  
       
         
    STUDIA EPHEMERIDES - Issue no. 2 / 2006  
         
  Article:   ENHANCING CITIZENS’ POLITICAL ENGAGEMENT: COMMUNICATION IN THE EUROPEAN UNION.

Authors:  SERGIU GHERGHINA, GEORGE JIGLĂU. 		 
       
         
  Abstract:  In his definition of democracy, Robert Dahl considers citizens’ involvement in politics to be one central element. Consistent with this opinion, Verba and Nye consider that ”where few take part in decisions there is little democracy”. Following the same logic, we can identify two direct effects produced by citizens’ political involvement. The first is represented by an increased credibility and legitimacy of the institutions, citizens’ influences varying a lot from case to case. The second effect is that the political engagement leads to the articulation of citizens’ demands and to build a system through which their representatives can account: „individual and otherwise quiet voices multiply and are amplified”. In his research of Italian communities, Putnam highlighted the relationship between civicness (active participation in public affairs) and governance performance of regional institutions. Furthermore, the conclusions of a study made on central and Eastern European countries showed the importance of citizens’ involvement in politics in building a sustainable democracy.  
         
     
         
         
      Back to previous page