Developing Responsible Citizens in Serbia: The Case of Ecological Citizenship

Abstract

The analysis relies on the concepts of participative democracy and ecological citizenship. The paper discusses dilemmas related to development of (ecological) citizenship in matured democratic systems as well as in post-socialist countries. The main analytical focus is on the challenges of generating environmentally responsible citizens in Serbia. This analysis is based on empirical data obtained through questionnaire research on representative sample for citizens in Serbia (N=1950) in 2010. One of the main conclusions is that dominant model of the citizen in Serbia is „orientation to the state“, since most of the respondents expect from state actors to play a leading role in achieving higher standards and better quality of the environment. For developing a model of the responsible citizens (who would consider the environmental protection to be a civic duty), there is a lack of essential citizens’ confidence in institutions, as well as in their fellow citizens.