Neither the development of all-embracing nominal definitions, nor deductive analyses of existing modes of participation seem to be helpful. How would you recognize a mode of participation if you see one? Owing to the rapid expansion of political activities in the last decades this question has become increasingly difficult to answer. This entails a new analytical framework that may be used to analyze an empirical phenomenon that has received surprisingly little attention in the literature on political participation and civic engagement. Alongside active citizens, these people are in distinctly different categories with regard to their political behavior. In the paper we present empirical evidence not only of the existence of a particular ‘standby citizen’, but also of two kinds of genuinely passive young people: unengaged and disillusioned citizens. Multivariate cluster analysis of empirical data on Swedish youth suggests that we need to consider three distinctive forms of ‘political passivity’. Drawing on this discussion, the present study goes beyond the dichotomy by keeping political interest conceptually separate from participation in order to improve our understanding of political passivity. This dichotomous notion is nurtured by an extensive normative debate concerning whether passivity is an asset or a threat to democracy and it is especially manifest in studies of young people's political orientations. The current debate on political participation is bound to a discussion about whether citizens are active or passive. This article thus argues that school activities can have a lasting and independent impact on youth politicalĮngagement and provides support for the continuation of education through citizenship, as well as about citizenship. Have shown), but also in the medium-term (by encouraging political engagement once the students have left the confines of School councils, debate teams and/or mock elections are some of the most common ‘education throughĬitizenship’ activities in schools in England, and drawing on data from the Citizenship Education Longitudinal Study this article shows that such activities can indeed have an effect, not just in the short-term (as previous studies in England In short, ‘education through citizenship’ involves formal and informal learning opportunities that enable students to acquire civic skills and knowledge To teach ‘education through citizenship’ at school. This article examines the impact of one such policy initiative-namely the introduction of activities that seek Over the past two decades, various policy initiatives have been proposed to solve the perceived problem of youth disengagementįrom politics.

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