Trends in forms of civic involvement in the Netherlands between 2008 and 2020

Abstract

Dutch civil society is seen as well-equipped and known for its high level of civic involvement in various fields. For sustainability of civil society, however, it is crucial to understand to what extent civic involvement changes over time. Therefore, this article describes how civic involvement in the Netherlands has developed in the period 2008–2020. Using longitudinal high-quality survey data, we consider (contradictory or complementary) causes for trends on civic involvement during the period of investigation: (1) ongoing individualization; (2) traditionalization; (3) the role of major societal events that may periodically undermine or boost civil society. We find an overall trend of predominantly stable, yet slowly and statistically significant declining engagement levels that seem robust and relatively unaffected by societal events. Our results also reveal clearly fixed sequences of forms of civic involvement between distinguished (clusters of) organizations. The results in this article are most in line with individualization processes. However, given that the declines are slow and relatively unaffected by societal events, the findings could also be due to the slow process of cohort replacement.