ABSTRACT
It is in the interests of all states and all societies for people to have a sense of social and civic responsibility. In a very crude sense the fabric of society, its buildings and public places may be at risk from vandalism by people, often young people, who feel no sense of responsibility to society or to their environment. On a more worrying level, young people, in an understandable desire to explore the limits of social tolerance, may team up with calculating and cynical political forces with ideologies based on racism, fascism or authoritarianism. Such movements may be destabilizing to democratic societies and pose a threat to the fundamental freedoms which are the basis of European democracies.
