Activities related to active citizenship (activities carried out within a local interest group, participation in public consultations, protests including signing a petition, participating in a demonstration, writing an open letter) are very low in Romania, according to data provided by Institute of National Statistics Although we are in a multi-election year.

Over the past 12 months, the share of people who participated in active civil actions was quite low. “The highest degree of involvement in these types of actions was noted in the age group of 16-24 years, in active civic actions – 4.7%. At the level of development regions, people from the regions: North-Eastern (6.7% and 7.1%), Western (5.5% and 6.1%) are better mobilized in conducting formal and informal volunteer activities) and the Center

(4.7% and 5.3%). In the activity of active citizenship, higher weights of participation were recorded in the Western (6.2%), North-Eastern (4.5%) and Central (4.2%) regions of development,” the INS also notes.

Although the quality of life has deteriorated under the influence of high inflation, people no longer tire of street meetings, demonstrations or protests.

Despite active civic activities, the main reason for people who did not participate in any of them is that they were not interestedshows the study Statistics.

Also, a constant part (about 20%) of the respondents indicated a lack of time.

The world looks ahead and numbly waits for the promises that will come with the election campaigns. The business environment is stingy and only with the help of extremely “decent” press releases, small entrepreneurs say that they would protest in vain, because nothing will change… Social anesthesia looks generalized.

HotNews talked to a sociologist to explain why this phenomenon occurs. Claudio Toufisch, Ph.D. (Pennsylvania State University, 2007), a specialist in political culture, political participation and social movements, explained to us what might be the reason for such a low appetite for civic action

“Probably, the percentage calculated by the INS will actually be somewhere between 3% and 5%, the professor believes. “Let’s not forget two things, he points out: INS data is being collected at a time when people were still getting used to public activity after years of pandemics and restrictions. And secondly, we tend to see things around us rather than at a distance. Bucharest, Cluj and 2-3 other university cities are not at all representative of the rest of Romania, considering that half of Romanians live in rural areas and only about 13% live in the main university cities, where there is a bit more civic activity,” explains Claudiu Tuffish

Romania is a country with very few wealthy people who can afford civic engagement

It’s true, the social bond has also been broken by the authorities through failed tax policies, with which they have created antagonistic classes: discriminatory tax breaks (see IT professionals, builders, farmers), CAS tax changes and CASS payments. “This pension contribution is about intergenerational solidarity,” says Gabriel Birish. “That is, we pay today with the expectation that someone will pay tomorrow so that we too can receive our pension. At CASS, we talk about real, present solidarity. And solidarity is a connection that makes any population a nation,” Gabriel Birish notes.

Sociologist Claudio Tufish explains the lack of desire to protest when your rights are violated by a lack of money.

“If you look at the tables in the INS report that have distributions by age, education, wealth, etc. You will find that the percentage of civic engagement is higher among young people, among those who have the resources to spend some of it on exotic things like civic engagement. These resources are both material (income, wealth) and symbolic (primarily education),” the Romanian researcher explains.

Is this a problem of civic education (more precisely, its lack)?

He also understands that Romania, unfortunately, is a country with very few people rich enough to afford civic engagement, and it is also a country with a very small percentage of people with higher education. “All this shows that this percentage is not small, but it is what it is for a country like Romania – poorer than others, less educated than others, more individualistic than many others,” says Claudio Tufiš.

Updated article with graphs by age group after the original version