Transcript Civic Engagement: Yesterday & Today March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom: August 28, 1963 Bill of Rights Institute Bozeman, Montana November 13, 2012 Artemus.

Civic Engagement: Yesterday & Today
March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom: August 28, 1963
Bill of Rights Institute
Bozeman, Montana
November 13, 2012
Artemus Ward
Department of Political Science
Northern Illinois University
[email protected]
http://polisci.niu.edu/polisci/faculty/ward
Introduction
The Boston Tea Party: December 16, 1773
• Does the U.S. Constitution require the American people to
participate in public life?
• Did the founders expect that the American people would be
civically engaged?
• In this lecture we will so how the ideals of American civic
engagement have degraded over time to today’s reality of
disillusionment, cynicism, and ignorance, putting American
democracy at risk.
• What can and should be done so that the American people will
become more engaged in public life?
Then: Do the Framers Matter?
George Washington was
sworn in as the nation's first
president on April 30, 1789,
on the balcony of Federal Hall
in New York. The mural
depicts (from left to right)
Robert R. Livingston,
chancellor of the state of New
York, administering the oath;
Secretary of the Senate
Samuel Otis holding the Bible;
George Washington, with his
hand upraised; and Vice
President John Adams.
• We will discuss how some members of the founding
generation thought about civic participation.
• What did they mean by education, voting, knowledge
of current affairs, and public service?
• Can we apply their ideals to American society today?
U.S. Constitution: Preamble
• “We the People of the United
States, in Order to form a more
perfect Union, establish Justice,
insure domestic Tranquility,
provide for the common defence,
promote the general Welfare,
and secure the Blessings of
Liberty to ourselves and our
Posterity, do ordain and
establish this Constitution for the
United States of America.”
• Does this sentence merely
explain the meaning of the
document or is there an ongoing,
instructive component?
John Adams on Education
• “Wisdom and knowledge, as well
as virtue, diffused generally among
the body of the people being
necessary for the preservation of
their rights and liberties; and as
these depend upon spreading the
opportunities and advantages of
education in various parts of the
country, and among the different
orders of the people, it shall be the
duty of legislators and magistrates
in all future periods of this
commonwealth to cherish the
interests of literature and the
sciences.” – John Adams, The
Constitution of the Commonwealth
of Massachusetts, 1779
• What did Adams mean by
“spreading the opportunities”?
Alexander Hamilton on Voting
• "A share in the sovereignty
of the state, which is
exercised by the citizens at
large, in voting at elections
is one of the most important
rights of the subject, and in
a republic ought to stand
foremost in the estimation
of the law." --Alexander
Hamilton, 1784 editorial as
Phocion
• What did Hamilton mean by
“a share in the sovereignty
of the state”?
Jefferson on Attention to Public Affairs
• "Cherish, therefore, the spirit
of our people, and keep alive
their attention. If once they
become inattentive to the
public affairs, you and I, and
Congress and Assemblies,
judges and governors, shall all
become wolves. It seems to be
the law of our general nature."
- Thomas Jefferson to Edward
Carrington, January 16, 1787
• What are the consequences to
an “inattentive” public?
• How can the public’s
“attention” to “public affairs” be
cultivated?
James Wilson on Public Service
• "Need I infer, that it is the duty of every
citizen to use his best and most
unremitting endeavours for preserving it
[the Constitution] pure, healthful, and
vigorous? For the accomplishment of
this great purpose, the exertions of no
one citizen are unimportant. Let no one,
therefore harbour, for a moment, the
mean idea, that he is and can be of no
value to his country: let the contrary
manly impression animate his soul.
Every one can, at many times, perform,
to the state, useful services; and he,
who steadily pursues the road of
patriotism, has the most inviting
prospect of being able, at some times,
to perform eminent ones." – James
Wilson, Independence Day speech,
July 4, 1788
• What “useful services” should citizens
undertake?
James Madison on Knowledge
• "Knowledge will
forever govern
ignorance; and a
people who mean to
be their own
governors must arm
themselves with the
power which
knowledge gives." -James Madison to
W.T. Barry, August 4,
1822
• How can the “people”
“arm themselves” with
knowledge?
Now: Democracy at Risk
Pulitzer-prize winning photograph
“Vietnam Napalm” by Kim Phuc
Trang Bang, South Vietnam 1972
• Americans have turned away from politics and the
public sphere in large numbers, leaving our civic life
impoverished.
• Citizens participate in public affairs less frequently,
with less knowledge and enthusiasm, in fewer
venues, and less equally than is healthy for a vibrant
democratic polity.
Civic
Engagement
• Civic engagement includes any activity, individual or
collective, devoted to influencing the collective life of
the polity.
• Civic engagement can, for example, mean
participation in formal government institutions, but it
may also involve becoming part of a group or
organization, protesting or boycotting, or even
simply talking to a neighbor across the backyard
fence.
Negative Duties: Obligations
•
•
•
•
•
Obeying the Law
Attending School
Paying Taxes
Serving in the Armed Forces
Appearing in Court, including as a juror or
witness
Positive Duties: Privileges
• Voting
• Being Informed
• Sustained Volunteering/Public
Service
• Short-Term Political
Participation: such as writing
letters to the editor,
participating in rallies, and
volunteering for political
campaigns
• Joining and contributing to
voluntary organizations
Are these Duties?
• Work
• Rest and Leisure
• Health
•
•
•
American voter turnout ranks near the bottom among democratic nations.
Who doesn’t vote? 86% of people with advanced college degrees have registered
to vote, compared to only 50% of people who did not earn a high school diploma.
The people who don't vote are generally poor, less educated, younger and more
residentially mobile.
The Decline of Civic Engagement
• Between 1974 and 1994, engagement in twelve key political
activities, such as writing letters to the editor, participating in rallies
and demonstrations, and volunteering in campaigns, fell significantly.
• Citizens need public information, but the number of civics courses
taken in public schools has declined by two-thirds since 1960, and, at
least by some measures, college graduates nowadays know as
much about politics as the average high school senior did fifty years
ago.
• From the mid-1970s to the present, the number of adolescents who
say they can see themselves working on a political campaign has
dropped by about half.
• In 2002, only 15 of 435 congressional races were decided by 4% or
less. Of the 50 congressional incumbents who ran in California, not
one lost, and all got at least 58% of the vote.
• In the 2008 presidential election, despite a massive voter-drive
ground war, a severe economic recession, an unpopular outgoing
president and a charismatic new Democrat, voter turnout, at 62% of
eligible voters, was only two percentage points higher than four years
prior and less than the 64% high for modern elections in 1960.
• In 2012 turnout was down to 58% -- 93 million eligible Americans did
not vote for president.
The Design of our Institutions and Practices
Turns Citizens Off
•
•
•
•
If Americans find the presidential primary process long and boring, it is because
that process is indeed longer than it should be, and its lengthy and episodic
nature discourages sustained attention and continued political learning.
If Americans find congressional elections dull, it may be because they are rarely
competitive. Our systems of redrawing district boundaries and financing
campaigns, as well as our increasingly candidate-centered politics, all work to
the advantage of incumbents—an advantage that has grown in recent years.
For example, in 2004, 98% of the incumbents running in House races won.
When elections are not competitive, citizens have little incentive to pay attention,
become informed, take part in the campaign, and vote in the election.
If Americans find partisan politics excessively ideological, nasty, and
insufficiently focused on practical problem solving, there is reason to think they
are right: American citizens tend toward the political middle, but safe
congressional seats may empower the ideological bases of the two parties at
the expense of moderates, intensifying party conflict in Washington and
hindering efforts to work across party lines.
If poorer Americans believe that local political institutions are incapable of
addressing their problems, if racial minorities find American politics to be
exclusive rather than inclusive, and if better-off Americans seem disconnected
from the problems and experiences of their poorer fellow citizens, this is partly
because our metropolitan political institutions encourage privileged Americans to
move to suburban enclaves, defying the promise of common public institutions
and a sense of shared fate.
Improving our Institutions
to Promote Robust Citizen Engagement
is Essential to American Democracy
• First, civic engagement enhances the quality
of democratic governance. More voices are
better than less.
• Second, the promise of democratic life is not
simply that government by the people yields
the most excellent governance. It is also—
and perhaps mainly—that government is
legitimate only when the people as a whole
participate in their own self-rule.
• Third, participation can enhance the quality of
citizens’ lives. Civic engagement has the
potential to educate and invigorate.
• In sum, when citizens are involved and
engaged with others, their lives and our
communities are better. Not only do people
“feel” better but they produce a wide variety of
goods and services that neither the state nor
the market can provide.
Some Solutions?
• National Level:
• How do we increase voting?
– Mandatory voting?
– More flexibility in terms of time, manner, and place? National
holiday?
– nonpartisan redistricting of congressional districts?
• State and Local Level:
• There continues to be tremendous and growing inequalities
associated with places of residence, inequalities that defy
democratic ideals of equality and inclusion. How might this be
addressed?
• Associational Life and the Nonprofit Sector:
• Will increases in public funding for a variety of programs of national
service, whether in a military or civilian capacity such as
Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA), AmeriCorps, or the
Peace Corps, promote civic engagement?
• Experts have called for increasing civic education noting that
government has been made into the villain in contemporary
society.
Is Change Possible or are we
Resigned to Bowling Alone?
• “Television, two-career families,
suburban sprawl, generational changes
in values--these and other changes in
American society have meant that fewer
and fewer of us find that the League of
Women Voters, or the United Way, or
the Shriners, or the monthly bridge club,
or even a Sunday picnic with friends fits
the way we have come to live.
• Our growing social-capital deficit
threatens educational performance, safe
neighborhoods, equitable tax collection,
democratic responsiveness, everyday
honesty, and even our health and
happiness.” – Robert Putnam, Bowling
Alone (2000).
Conclusion
• The framers of the Constitution recognized that civic
engagement was crucial for America.
• The current situation in the United States features three
characteristics: questionable legitimacy, high cynicism, and
great indifference.
• Experts suggest that civic education is the key.
• But would increased participation, more equal participation,
and a higher quality of participation benefit America? Is it
even possible?
References
• Macedo, Stephen, et. al, Democracy at Risk:
How Political Choices Undermine Citizen
Participation and What We Can Do About It
(Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press,
2005).
• Putnam, Robert, Bowling Alone: The Collapse
and Revival of American Community (New
York: Simon & Schuster, 2000).
• Skocpol, Theda and Morris P. Fiorina, eds.,
Civic Engagement in American Democracy
(Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press,
1999).