This paper examines the declining trend in civic participation across the United States, arguing that robust civic engagement is essential to a functioning democracy. It defines civic participation broadly to include voting, attending public meetings, volunteering, and political involvement, then traces measurable declines in these activities over recent decades. The paper highlights how this decline is unevenly distributed along socioeconomic and educational lines, with lower-income and less-educated citizens participating far less than their affluent counterparts. It further explores the erosion of labor unions as a contributing factor and discusses the importance of equal civic participation. Finally, it proposes solutions including a nine-step civic education initiative and the mobilizing potential of religious institutions.
Civic participation, also referred to as civic engagement, is defined as individual as well as collective actions designed for the identification and addressing of issues that concern the public. It is active citizenship whereby citizens have a direct input in the policy-making process, and those with direct experience of services or emerging social needs are given a voice in the determination of policy and practice. Civic participation has several elements, but in its most basic sense it concerns decision-making, or governance over who, how, and by whom the resources of a community are allocated.
The principle of civic participation underscores the basic principle of democratic governance — that sovereignty resides within the citizens. Civic participation is about the right of people to define what is good for the public, to determine policies through which they will seek that good, and to reform institutions that do not serve their intended purpose. It is working together to improve the civic life of communities by developing a combination of knowledge, skills, values, and motivations that make a meaningful difference. Civic participation refers to the promotion of life within a community through both political and non-political processes.
Currently in the United States, there has been a significant decline in civic participation. This is a troubling situation since civic participation is a cornerstone of democracy. Democracy works best when political institutions such as local governments, parliaments, and parties are close to the voters. This requires that citizens be able to make their needs known to those who represent them, and that representatives explain what they are doing to meet those needs through mechanisms designed to keep this communication open. The decline in civic participation, however, prevents this from happening. This paper examines the decline in civic participation in the U.S., explores its causes, and proposes solutions to the problem of low civic engagement.
Recent debate about American society has focused largely on the decline in civic participation and the consequent fraying of the social fabric. What is often lost in this discussion is the fact that what matters is not only the overall amount of civic activity, but how it is distributed — not just how many people take part, but who those people are. When examining the decline in civic engagement, a clear trend emerges in declining electoral turnout. From a high of 63% in the 1960 presidential election, voter turnout declined steadily, reaching its lowest point of 49% in 1996. What is less frequently noted is that this falloff has not been uniform across educational groups. Statistics show that between 1968 and 1992, turnout rates among those who did not complete high school fell by a third, while among college graduates the rate remained relatively constant (Sidney, Schlozman, & Henry, 1997). This produced an electorate that was not only smaller, but also less representative of all eligible voters.
A quarter of American adults have not engaged in civic life — defined broadly as volunteering and attending public meetings — since the year 2000. Despite this baseline, civic engagement has continued to decline: over the past two decades, voting has gone down by 25% and interest in public affairs has fallen by 20%. Between 1973 and 1994, the number of Americans who attended public meetings on school or town affairs in the prior year declined by 40%. These declines are most pronounced among those with higher levels of education (Sidney, Schlozman, & Henry, 1997).
It is well established that the United States lags behind other democracies in voter turnout. Civic participation in America is unevenly distributed along clear social fault lines. The bias in participation toward the well-educated and the affluent is pronounced. A further trend sees dollars substituting for hours as the essential unit of political input, making participation even more unequal. Growing income inequality within the United States will only accelerate this decrease in civic participation. Political participation increases with income: those who are affluent are more likely to take part in public affairs because they have greater stakes in various policy areas. The United States has never had particularly strong labor unions, and as a result lower-income citizens are less mobilized toward political activity, particularly on economic issues. The affluent are therefore more likely to participate, as their income heightens their stake in the system (Sidney, Schlozman, & Henry, 1997).
Work-related unions and professional societies have historically been important loci of social solidarity, serving as mechanisms for mutual assistance and a common form of civic connectedness. However, the decline in union membership in the United States has contributed significantly to the broader decline in civic engagement.
An important question worth asking is why it matters that some people are more politically active than others, and why some government officials hear more from certain constituents than from others. If those who do not participate in politics hold distinctive opinions or have distinct needs for governmental action, the principle of equal responsiveness to all citizens may be compromised. At the same time, those who participate actively in politics do not necessarily represent the views of those who are disengaged. Therefore, when disadvantaged citizens — those with lower education levels or incomes — do not participate, their needs, concerns, and opinions go unrepresented.
Civic participation is the heart of democracy. Through civic activity, citizens in a democracy seek to control who holds public office and thereby influence what the government does. Political participation offers a mechanism through which citizens can communicate their needs, preferences, and interests and bring pressure on the government to respond (Sidney, Schlozman, & Henry, 1997).
One proposed remedy for the decline in civic participation is education. Education is essential for helping middle-class Americans contribute fully to the economy and to public life. The introduction of civic learning has been proposed as a way to reverse the civic recession in the U.S. There is now a growing commitment to advancing civic learning within America (Reiss, 2012). The purpose of civic learning is the cultivation of engaged and effective citizens — a national imperative. Civic learning means that civic knowledge and skills gained through structured content can increase social engagement as they are applied in practice. The skills acquired through civic engagement are also the twenty-first century skills that employers seek.
Nine steps have been proposed for advancing civic learning and engagement in democracy. The first step involves convening and catalyzing schools and post-secondary institutions to enhance and increase the quality of civic learning and engagement. The second step is the identification of additional civic indicators, along with the development of improved measures to identify students' civic strengths and weaknesses. The third step is the identification of promising practices in civic learning and democratic engagement and encouraging further research into how these practices work (Kanter, 2012). The fourth step involves finding ways to leverage federal investments and public-private partnerships that support civic learning.
"Education initiatives and religious institutions as remedies"
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