PARTICIPATION CULTURE BETWEEN IDEAL AND REALITY: THE CASE OF ROMANIA

Abstract

The present paper attempts to answer the question whether the predominance of non-participation culture is a characteristic of the present Romanian society. Considering that Romanians praise the democratic political model as valuable, the speculative denial of participation culture in the present Romanian society seems to be ungrounded. In fact, the real issue of Romanian political life is represented by the gap existing between the culture of participation, seen as an ideal, and the culture of participation, seen as a fact. Does this distance tend to be less significant as regards the young people? Is the Romanian young people’s involvement in democratic life similar to the European participation trend or it is different from it?

Keywords

• contemplation
• participation culture
• political participation
• the young people.