Social and Political Participation

Abstract

Social and political participation are two of the basic dimensions of the social quality of a society, in particular, one of the main pillars to achieve social cohesion. This chapter contains five indices that describe two crucial elements of civil society: social participation (cooperation between individuals to produce public goods or social capital) and political participation (democratic legitimacy). In this chapter, we examine five indices for measuring social capital and political participation: Index of Social Cohesion (VALCOS Index), Social Capital Index, Index of Social Capital, Active Citizenship Composite Indicator (ACCI), and Young People’s Civic Competence Composite Indicator (CCCI). For every index, different sections offer basic information about its conceptual and empirical framework, its process of construction and metrics together with the most recent available data.