The relationship between citizens and political institutions in democratic systems all over the world seems to be experiencing a time of uncertainty: falling numbers of voters, an increase in populist discourses and parties, rising public protest demanding reforms of political systems and the new manifestations of organisations from civil society being set up to protect and fight for specific rights. Establishing the meaning of citizenship has occupied a great deal of space and effort among theorists who have defined the ideal character linked to the model of a good citizen, which is useful and valid for improving relations between society and the State. However, it is less common to find viewpoints approaching the issue of the meaning of citizenship by directly asking citizens themselves. This article deals with interpretations linked to the notion of citizenship and democracy, based on an empirical analysis, with a research developed largely in the Netherlands, examining data on Dutch citizens’ ideals. The data is presented with the aim of seeking uncertainties and evidences that could help for understanding what appears to be a greater distancing between society and the State. With the aim of achieving this objective, this article first presents a brief analysis of the ideals associated with the notion of good citizenship in the literature. Secondly, it introduces some previous cross-national research with closed-ended questions to get grip on the meanings of good citizenship of ordinary citizens in different contexts. Thirdly, having introduced these two issues, an approach is made to the interpretation of the “good citizen” according to open questions to Dutch citizens in surveys carried out by the Netherlands Institute for Social Research (SCP), where one of the authors of this article carries out research work. Later, in a new point, interest is focused on a study of the attitudes and expectations of Dutch citizens with regard to democratic politics, data also collected via the SCP. Analysis of this data ...