Is Our Civic Dialogue In Decline?

One of the most important tools a citizen must have to participate in civic dialouge effectively is accurate and timely information. Acquiring such information is easier today than it has ever been. Vast amounts of information about the government and politicians are available with a few mouse clicks. Email has also made contacting political leaders inexpensive and less time consuming. Not only are politicians, government agencies, interest groups, and political parties able to use websites to disseminate information, but average people have the ability to do the same. Today, private citizens, without even leaving their homes, can communicate with a wider audience of their fellow citizens than anyone would have dreamed possible just a few years ago.

In spite of easy access to information, our civic dialogue is in decline. As noted in lesson 6, voter turnout is low while cynicism and apathy are up. Local community organizations are also generally on the decline. Moreover, because of the media’s (and the public’s) fixation on scandals and because of the high financial costs of campaigning, many good and decent people stay away from politics.

Based on this evidence, it is easy to conclude that civic life is not in particularly good shape in America. Whether or not it's worse than it's ever been is more difficult to say — voter turnout has been lower, and cynicism, especially among young people, was certainly higher during the 1960s.

One of the greatest sources of cynicism and a corresponding lack of willingness to participate in civic dialogue is a sense that politicians don’t care about or listen to the average voter. Let’s explore this allegation: are politicians really thumbing their noses at the people they supposedly represent? If they are, how do they get away with it?

First, it is important to understand that the American political system is a republic, not a democracy. There's a difference: The Framers of the Constitution were wary of democracy because it would allow a simple majority (a group as small as 51 percent of the people) to do whatever it wanted to the minority (a group as large as 49 percent of the people). They also worried that the people wouldn’t have enough information to make important decisions about foreign policy, interstate trade, national defense, and a host of other complex issues. To address both sets of concerns, the Framers instituted a republic (a system in which the people do not vote directly on policy questions, but instead choose representatives to do so for them).