Active citizenship in Europe: the role of social capital

The purpose of this paper is to show if and to what extent in the EU countries the probability of being an active citizen depends on individual/household social capital endowment, other than on individual/household socio-economic characteristics. The paper provides a deeper insight of the determinants of active citizenship due to the growing concern of the European Commission with citizens' issues. The core of the paper, which adopts a micro-level perspective, is an empirical analysis, based on a logistic model, of the EU-SILC 2015 survey data. The statistical analysis reveals that individual/household social capital, other than individual/household socio-economic characteristics, represents an important prerequisite for a citizen to be defined as "active." This study fills a significant gap in the literature, since so far little attention has been paid to individual/household social capital endowment as possible determinant of active citizenship.