Active citizens can lead to directed, collective action to better shared living conditions. Developing active citizenship is a prerequisite to having leadership effective and capable of representing them. Active citizenship also legitimates collective behaviour. Much like the convening of diverse groups, developing citizenship can bring more resources to a given decision-making process and increase acceptance, and effective implementation of decisions. There are a number of international initiatives that focus on building citizenship from environmental and social perspectives.
Many initiatives focus on reforming institutions to be more accountable and responsive to citizens.
Other related initiatives focus on developing citizen responsibility for their social, political, and environmental 6. impacts. Types of Activities that Build Citizenship Changing Consumption Patterns 7. Strengths Building citizenship through enabling people to participate in important social, economic and environmental decision-making can give legitimate voice to people who often do not exert much political power. Building citizenship can lead to better understandings of our shared responsibilities on a global basis for other humans, non-humans and across time, and effective action based on these understandings. Similarly citizen-involving processes can go astray if people are given inadequate information, the responsibility to make decisions.