In recent years, the term "participation" has come to assume the status of a fashion phenomenon. The belief in participative forms of behavior has spread rapidly, with the result that participation has today taken on a quasi- mythical aura. This leads people to expect that participation will positively influence a multitude of diverse and significant changes in behavior and attitude also in the field of civic education. It is assumed and expected, for example, that participative processes will induce social and democratic learning generally. This assumed effect often leads to demand to take participation processes seriously and to integrate participation processes into the daily routine of authorities in education and socialization. Based on these assumptions, the present empirical study addressed the question to what possible effects participation experiences have on the development of personal skills and social characteristics on the one hand, and political skills, attitudes and activities on the other. The survey was conducted with a questionnaire during the IEA study about "civic education: older population" (as a national option). The representative sample from german- speaking Switzerland included 1270 11th grade students (average age of 17.9 years). In order to give the widest possible coverage to areas involving the lives respectively the participation experiences of these young people, the fields of family, school, work and leisure time were taken into account in the drawing up of the sample survey. The analysis shows following results: The assessments of connection reveal that the factors classified under personal skills and social characteristics have a positive relation to participation experiences (both "discoursive- procedural form of Participation" [e.g. "discourse" and "decision making"] and "social-affective form of Participation" [e.g. "cooperation" and "competitiveness"]; r = 0.28 till 0.40; p<.001). In specific terms this means that people who are aware of effective participative processes in which responsibility is shared tend to show a greater "self-conception", a higher "autonomy", a superior "social integration" and a lower "lack of perspective" than those persons who are not aware of these processes. With regard to the relationship between aspects of participation and aspects of political identity (e.g. "political concepts", "attitudes of politics", "interest in politics", "confidence of politics" or "expected political activities") no (systematic) significant correlation was found. On the basis of these results it can be established that it exists a relationship between the perception of participation (in family, school, job and leisure time) and personal skills and social competencies. But it doesn't exist a relationship between the perception of participation and political skills, attitudes and activities. These results indicate that participation, in respect of the belief that it is something good in itself, must be demythologised. The simple initiation of participative processes does not automatically lead to any desired changes in political behaviour or attitude. Civic education requires additional elements.