Citizenship and civic participation are spatially and temporally changing concepts, therefore, their research remains constantly relevant. The question of how 17–18-year-old pupils see their “place” in society and their role in political processes, is of high importance, as they are the future voters. The main objective of the paper is to find out the kinds of categories that can be distinguished in terms of civic participation among the youth on the threshold of adulthood and what are the specificities of these categories. Furthermore, I try to identify the dimensions along which young people interpret the concept of “citizen” and what are the qualities that they consider important to acknowledge someone as a “good citizen”. In this section, my aim is to highlight the influencing factors and their strengths. The results show that four types of pupils are distinguished in terms of participation: those who “accumulate” activities, the “traditionals”, the protesters, and the passive ones. At the same time, based on the responses, one can see that the characteristics of an ideal citizen are organized into three factors: orientation and activity, social, and responsibility. Their activities and ideas are greatly influenced by the environment and the behavioral patterns they encounter and follow. The study presents the results of a survey based on questionnaire, which is representative of the Hungarian 11th and 12th grade pupils of eight large cities in Transylvania.
Keywords: civic participation, ideal citizen, youth
