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Enhancing Civic Engagement in America:Advancing Community Action for Civic Innovation

Research Brief

November 2003

O

VERVIEW

Civic engagement and its relationship to the health of democracy in America has received nationwide attention during the last decade. While the very definition and scope of “civicengagement” is still contested, policymakers, journalists, researchers, and community leadershave bemoaned a decline in citizen engagement and questioned democracy’s capacity to solve public problems at the community level. In the aftermath of the September 11

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tragedy, initial reports signaled a resurgence in civic engagement and a renewed faith in democracy, however,the research provides mixed evidence regarding the net impact on citizenship and Americandemocratic institutions. Whether Americans are withdrawing from public life or participating indifferent ways is still a matter of much scholarly contention. Although no consensus has beenreached regarding the level of civic engagement, the debate has broadened to include important questions about the quality, equality, and sustainability of participation.What are the key factors that foster, enhance, and sustain citizens’ civic engagement and build acommunity’s capacities for reinvigorating democracy? The Democracy Collaborative at theUniversity of Maryland, in partnership with the Center for the Study of Voluntary Organizationsand Service at Georgetown University, has conducted a national-level assessment to examinewhat works to strengthen civic engagement in the United States. Developing a comparative framework to understand the main variables that enhance civic engagement and democraticcitizenship at the community-level, this research study draws on a growing knowledge base of effective civic innovations and strategies of various communities around the United States. The goal of this research effort is to help local policy makers, advocates, practitioners, and foundation program officers set objectives and design strategies tailored to the realities of their communities that strengthen civic engagement, community involvement, and, ultimately,democratic citizenship.This Research Brief provides a summary of this project’s conceptual framework, including themain goals for enhancing civic engagement, the fundamental factors that influence civicengagement at the community level, the key measures to assess civic health, and the innovationsand strategies employed to achieve these goals. The Research Brief also highlights theconditions necessary for civic engagement to thrive, priority areas for future efforts, and keyresearch gaps in the civic engagement literature. Most important, this Research Brief presents a preliminary assessment of what works to enhance civic engagement at the community level based on the findings of eight reports that reviewed over 700 scholarly articles (

What Works

Table

on pages 11-12).

Enhancing Civic Engagement in America: A Research Brief

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ENHANCING CIVIC ENGAGEMENT &DEMOCRATIC CITIZENSHIP

Civic engagement means “active participation incivic life.” This study focuses on those civic and political activities that contribute to or enhancedemocracy. Thus, this study presumes that theultimate goal of enhancing civic engagement isto strengthen democracy. This overarching goalinvolves four key measurable objectives, whichoverlap with one another but are all prerequisitesfor a healthy democracy. Specifically, civicinnovations and strategies should:

1.

Increase the quantity of civicengagement:

This means increasing thenumber of people involved or percentage of the population engaged and increasing thenumber of organizations and civic structures(where appropriate).

2.

Increase the quality of civic engagement:

This means improving existing opportunitiesfor volunteers or enhancing organizationaleffectiveness and creating new moremeaningful opportunities to participate,which would also contribute to the nextgoal, increasing the equality of civicengagement. This also includes increasingthe quality of citizens through skill-buildingopportunities and civic education.

3.

Increase the equality of civic engagement:

This involves identifying civic structuresand other factors that serve to include or exclude, leveraging differences andminimizing disparities in order to increase participation, access, influence andrepresentation of underrepresented groups by race, class, ethnicity, age, gender andreligion. This also includes elevating, whereappropriate “fringe involvement” to “center stage” to help strengthen the links betweeninformal and formal networks (e.g.,community leaders: gang leaders vs. electedofficials).

4.

Increase the sustainability of civicengagement:

This involves strengtheningexisting venues or opportunities for participation and identifying and nurturingemerging strategies and innovations thatseek to build citizenship and engagement atthe local level over the long-term.

Main Factors Affecting Civic Engagement

Civic engagement is a broad and complex topic.What are the main factors that affect civicengagement? To better understand the field, wehave reviewed the existing empirical literatureand identified the three main factors that shapethe possibilities for civic engagement andhealthy democratic communities.

Individual and Community Factors

resultfrom individual experiences that are driven byinternal (such as personal values) and external(such as familial and societal) forces. Thesefactors

set the context or conditions both at theindividual and collective levels that either facilitate or impede civic engagement and areidentified as:

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Civic Motivations and Values

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Civic Identity, Norms, Conditions

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Civic Differences and Disparities

Civic Tools and Resources

are the primarymeans in terms of strategies and practices, bothat the individual and collective levels, to enhancethe quality, quantity, equality, and sustainabilityof civic engagement and are identified as:

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Civic Education and Knowledge

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Civic Skills and Capacities

The Modes and Infrastructure forParticipation

are the main forms, venues, andinfrastructure though which people are or become civically engaged. These are identified broadly as

Civic Participation and CivicStructures

and take four forms: community andreligious, economic, political, and electoral participation and structures.Together the inter-relationships among thesethree main factors shape and affect the possibilities for enhancing civic engagement(i.e., quantity, quality, equality, andsustainability), and thus shape the potentialoutcomes for building healthy democraticcommunities.

FOSTERING CIVIC INNOVATIONS ANDSTRATEGIESWhat leads people to engage civically in theircommunities?

Enhancing Civic Engagement in America: A Research Brief

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First and foremost, people must have reason to believe that, whatever the form of involvement,their civic actions will positively affect their communities. Political theorist Harry Boyteargues that people are most likely to sustainengagement when people see active citizenshipas “public work,” which is conceived as anongoing creative process whereby people findefficacy in working in public ways and venues tosolve community problems collectively (Boyte,1997, 2000; Boyte & Kari, 1996). Variousexperiences in St. Paul, Philadelphia, Portland,OR, and other cities suggest that, where peoplefind their voice matters, they are most likely toact on some form of engagement in the broader community (Berry, Portney & Thomson, 1993;Boyte & Kari, 1996; Markus, 2002).

What conditions are necessary to foster and tosustain civic engagement at the communitylevel?

A variety of organizations and institutions at thelocal level play a critical role in facilitating andshaping the possibilities for enhanced civicengagement: Charitable and politicalorganizations, religious congregations, advocacygroups, unions, schools and universities,community foundations, local government,cooperatives, community development centers,neighborhood associations, and local political party chapters, just to name a few. Together,these organizations help to establish strong socialnetworks, develop civic skills, and foster deeproots for further participation and politicalinvolvement.Markus’s study (2002) of civic engagement infourteen major cities finds that the role of community-based organizations in the form of neighborhood associations, small church groups,PTAs and other citizens’ groups is critical. Theselocal groups mobilize people to address the problems of their communities, spanning variousissues, from health to housing, hunger, andcrime. To the extent that these organizations aregrounded in the communities with widerepresentation, they have great potential togenerate citizen awareness, facilitate active civicand political engagement, and foster leadershipdevelopment. For instance, the neighborhoodgovernance councils in West Chicago have provided low-income people with an effectiveforum that enables them to influence and shapethe policies for community policing and publicschools (Markus, 2002; Fung, 2001).Collectively, these city-level studies point to anumber of key conditions necessary for community-level civic engagement to thrive: 1) ahigh level of organizational and economicdiversity, 2) responsive and participatorygovernance structures, 3) successful mobilizationefforts of broad coalitions, 4) a focus onleadership, and 5) access to resources andeducation.

5 Key Conditions for Fostering Community-level Civic Engagement

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A high level of organizational and economicdiversity: A diverse mix of organizations ismost likely to provide broader moreinclusive opportunities and responsivemeans for people to participate meaningfullyin their communities than individualcommunity actors acting alone (e.g.,community, church, labor union, and localgovernment or multi-sectoral partnerships)(Norris, 2002a; Nelson, Craig, & Riker,2003). The greater the level of economicdiversity in middle-income communities is positively correlated with higher levels of civic engagement by citizens, for instance,as they seek to influence decisions about theallocation and provision of public services(Nembhard & Blasingame, 2003, 14; Oliver,1999; Costa & Kahn, 2003). Thosecommunities that have a broader range of community economic developmentorganizations (e.g., community developmentcorporations, cooperatives, community landtrusts, farmers’ markets) have generallydemonstrated higher levels of civicengagement and economic stability(Williamson, Imbroscio, & Alperovitz,2002; Rusch, 2001).

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Responsive and participatory governancestructures: Community-based organizationsand neighborhood associations that enable people to address their concerns through participatory governance structures can provide effective channels for voice,representation and accountability, especiallyfor poor, minority, and disenfranchised peoples (Portney & Berry, 2001; Markus,2002; Cuoto & Guthrie, 1999; Fung &Wright, 2002). When people are engaged inthe defining, deliberation, decision-makingand implementation of community prioritiesand initiatives, the sustainability of civicengagement is enhanced (Cortes, 1993;

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