The paper analyses several indicators (political participation, trade union organizations, ecological associations, voluntary and cultural activities) of active citizenship in Italy, focusing on the profiles of the activists in relation to wellbeing and gender differences. A sample of around...

This article considers two current topics: citizenship and security, in relation with a phenomenon denominated here as «excluding inclusion». The first topic emphasizes the active participation while the second one, conceived as human security, highlights the acceptance of oppression due...

A new democratic tool, the European Citizens' Initiative (ECI), starting with April 2012, will allow one million European Union (EU) citizens to ask the European Commission to propose EU legislation. The ECI could thus create a new space inside the EU policy-making machine for ordinary EU...

Why 2013 European Year of Citizens? Not only because we celebrate the 20th birthday of EU citizenship from when it was launched by the Maastricht Treaty. The people have to know the rights of EU citizens that are enshrined in the Treaty of European Union and complement national rights. If people...

W ILLIAMS C. C. (2003) Developing community involvement: contrasting local and regional participatory cultures in Britain and their implications for policy, Reg. Studies 37 , 531-541. This paper evaluates critically the implications and legitimacy of the current UK government policy towards...

Nowadays, active citizenship cannot exist without active using information-communication technologies (ICT). In countries of EU, various types of electronic services for citizens have been developed for supporting or enabling active citizenship. The level of their use depends on access to the...

In the paper we described different approaches to quality assessment of legal services, which are provided by lawyers, notaries or other legal profession. Citizens have options to make a formal complaint about poorly delivered legal services. Complaint and possible restitution can hardly effect...

The great complexity of problems that modern local, regional and national governments are faced with in the current knowledge intensive context of open societies in a globalized world, force these governments to become more creative in designing and implementing effective policy solutions in...