The concept of citizenship provides a fruitful approach to an analysis of individual actors in countries with different welfare regimes. This chapter will study the relationship between welfare regimes and political participation among unemployed youth, based on nation-wide representative samples of unemployed youth in six Northern European countries. The point of departure is Marshall's analyses of citizens’ rights as conditions for full civil, political and social citizenship (1992). Marshall saw the liberal democratic welfare state as the basis for citizens’ rights. By guaranteeing citizens civil, political and social rights, the welfare state ensures the individual's integration in society and enables everybody to participate in social and political life. If such rights are not developed, this leads to social marginalisation and low participation.

This Marshallian understanding of citizenship is sometimes described in the literature as passive or private citizenship, because citizens’ rights are claimed without any requirements of responsibility and duties. In a review of the literature, Kymlicka and Norman (1994) show how this has been criticised. Citizens should not only have ‘passive’ rights but also bear a responsibility for an active citizenship, which implies self-provision and political participation. Whereas Marshall claims that citizenship rights guaranteed by the welfare state are a condition for participation, critics argue that the welfare state creates passive citizens and a dependency culture, which does not increase opportunities for the ‘underclass’, quite the contrary (Murray et al, 1990). An effective welfare state should involve citizens in common responsibility and duties. Welfare dependency may involve a ‘learned helplessness’ and a retreat from political and public life. By the same token, Habermas claims that social marginalisation expresses a “particular clientalisation of the citizen role” (1992, p 11).

This chapter analyses the relationship between the citizens’ social rights and political participation among unemployed young people. There are different welfare regimes for unemployed youth in different countries. The question is whether and how different welfare arrangements are related to political orientation and participation among unemployed youth. To answer these questions, we shall use data from a comparative survey of unemployed youth conducted in Scotland and in the five Nordic countries from 1996 to 1998.

Throughout the European Union (EU), rates of unemployment among young people tend to be higher than among the general population and there is a serious risk of marginalisation and exclusion (European Commission, 1994).