Citizenship
10.68 The development of strong, active and empowered communities depends in large part on the active engagement in the civic process by local people. The DCLG 2005 Citizenship Survey provides an insight into the extent of engagement in the civic process. It measures this in three ways:
-
Civic activism - involvement either in direct decision-making about local services or issues or in the actual provision of these services by taking on a role such as a local councillor, school governor or magistrate;
- Civic consultation - the active engagement in consultation about local services or issues through activities such as attendng a consultation group or completing a questionnaire about these services;
-
Civic participation - is broader and covers civic engagement in democratic processes such as contacting an elected representative, taking part in a public demonstration or protest or signing a petition.
10.69 Levels of civic engagement in the South West are comparable to or better than those for England as a whole. In respect of civic activism adults in the South West are on a par with most other English regions with 9% participating in the past year. On civic consultation the South West is slightly better than the England average with 21% of adults participating (Eng: 20%). Lastly, on civic participation the region has some of the strongest results with 40% of adults saying they had been active in the past year (Eng: 38%).
For more detail on the findings from the Citizenship Survey 2005 go to Communities and Local Government