{"id":13791,"date":"2014-05-13T14:53:59","date_gmt":"2014-05-13T18:53:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/?p=13791"},"modified":"2014-05-13T15:02:53","modified_gmt":"2014-05-13T19:02:53","slug":"defining-civic-engagement-democracy-civic-renewal-related-terms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/?p=13791","title":{"rendered":"defining civic engagement, democracy, civic renewal, and related terms"},"content":{"rendered":"

My post entitled “What is the definition of civic engagement?<\/a>” gets lots of traffic. It does not\u00a0actually present\u00a0my definition but a compendium of alternative versions. I\u00a0have volunteered to draft some\u00a0new\u00a0definitions for a particular purpose. This is what I am thinking:<\/p>\n

Active citizenship:<\/em>\u00a0Working\u00a0to improve a nation or other\u00a0community, independent of whether you have\u00a0legal status as a member\u00a0of\u00a0that\u00a0community. (“You were an excellent active citizen in\u00a0Massachusetts while you visited here from South Africa.”)<\/p>\n

Civil society:<\/em>\u00a0The array of\u00a0nongovernmental organizations and networks that address public issues. Sometimes the definition introduces a qualitative dimension, so that civil society is an array of associations and networks marked by peacefulness, mutual respect, trust, and other virtues. Civil society may include for-profit enterprises\u00a0as well as nonprofits.\u00a0(“The government worked with civil society groups\u00a0to help victims of the storm.”)<\/p>\n

Civic education:\u00a0<\/em>Any process that strengthens people’s capacity for\u00a0civic engagement and political participation,\u00a0at any age and in any setting. (“Newspapers traditionally provided some of the best civic education in America.”)<\/p>\n

Civic engagement:\u00a0<\/em>Any act intended to\u00a0improve or influence a community. Often, the phrase has positive connotations,\u00a0so that engagement is viewed as “civic” to the extent that it meets such\u00a0criteria\u00a0as\u00a0responsibility, thoughtfulness, respect for evidence, and concern for other people and the environment. (“Informed voting is an example of civic engagement.”)<\/p>\n

Civic health:\u00a0<\/em>The degree to which a whole community involves\u00a0its people and organizations in addressing its problems. (“Minneapolis\/St Paul has the best\u00a0civic health of large American cities, thanks to a long tradition of strong civic organizations and responsive local government.”)<\/p>\n

Civic institutions: <\/em>The organizations and associated norms and rules that people use for civic engagement. (“Political parties and volunteer groups are two examples of civic institutions.”)<\/p>\n

Civic life: <\/em>For an individual, a life in which\u00a0civic engagement has\u00a0an important\u00a0place. For a community, all the acts of\u00a0civic engagement and associated norms and values of its members. (“A service experience\u00a0prepared her for civic life.” “The civic life of Somerville, MA is vibrant.”)<\/p>\n

Civic renewal:<\/em> Efforts to increase the prevalence, equity, quality, and impact of civic engagement. (“Attending a public meeting is civic engagement, but making\u00a0such meetings work better for the whole community is civic renewal.”)<\/p>\n

Democracy:<\/em> Any system for making decisions in which all the members of the community or group have roughly equal influence, whether they exercise it directly or through representatives. Voting is common in\u00a0democracies but is not definitive of it. Other means–such as reaching consensus or choosing representatives\u00a0by lot–can also be democratic; and voting requires other elements to be satisfactory, such as free expression and civil peace. (“An\u00a0elementary school is not a democracy, but it helps prepare students for democratic participation.”)<\/p>\n

Democratic participation: <\/em>Civic engagement that\u00a0involves democratic political institutions. (“Petitioning Congress is a form of\u00a0democratic participation.”)<\/p>\n

Politics: <\/em>Broadly, the means and processes by which people govern themselves and others, using power and influence. One important setting of\u00a0politics is\u00a0government, but politics also\u00a0occurs in other institutions. Politics is not necessarily contentious or zero-sum. (“The Marshall Plan was politics at its finest.”)<\/p>\n

Political engagement or political participation: <\/em>Civic engagement that emphasizes governmental institutions and\/or power. (“Voting is a touchstone of political participation in the United States.”)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My post entitled “What is the definition of civic engagement?” gets lots of traffic. It does not\u00a0actually present\u00a0my definition but a compendium of alternative versions. I\u00a0have volunteered to draft some\u00a0new\u00a0definitions for a particular purpose. This is what I am thinking: Active citizenship:\u00a0Working\u00a0to improve a nation or other\u00a0community, independent of whether you have\u00a0legal status as a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-civic-theory","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13791"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13791\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13798,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13791\/revisions\/13798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}