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1 Intro to Political Analysis April 4, 2017 Research Topic: Civic Engagement for A Stronger Democracy Research Question: Does Civic Engagement Strength Democracy? Introduction The affiliation between governments and their citizens is gradually changing. The latest events of frequent demonstrations against the president Trump’s draconian executive order concerning the immigration and refugee policies in the United States, is a reminder citizens’ thirst for democracy. Citizens are back to streets protesting due to their discontent against the ongoing governance whereby their democratic voice is disregarded, and consent is at stake. As a result, the question of how to bring democracy back to the citizens arises, and the answer is civic engagement. Currently, the accustomed custodians of democracy which comprise of numerous civic institutions and their leaders are reluctant and inactive since they only operate after being consistently pressured by citizens and activism to protect them (Skocpol, 2013). Therefore, it would be prudent that in such cases when citizens’ faith in the accustomed stalwart of democracy is diminishing we be actively engaging and vigilant in the civic engagement which is the only way to stronger democracy. Therefore, in this paper, we shall be seeking to answer the question of whether civic engagement strengthens democracy or vice versa which is as discussed below. Civic engagement entails the creation of better policies and reinvigoration of democratic practices within a given jurisdiction. Therefore, it is an irresistible tool in addressing the current political dysfunction in America by helping in the building of a better relationship between the governed and the government. The rising discontent and lack of cooperation between the Americans and their governments cannot be fixed by passing of new policies or injecting new government officials into the power by forcing the current officials to step down (Skocpol, 2013). The result of such actions would lead to unexpected social, economic and political crises that Americans would take decades to rebuild. Instead, the fixation can only happen through civic engagement in which citizens would be sensitized through multigenerational projects which could help in reinvigorating American democracy back to its status quo. In the first section of this research paper we shall conduct a desk survey on various ways in which civil engagement can strengthen democracy by conducting interviews among citizens from different races, and political divisions, that is, either democrats or republicans (Kennedy, 2011). The second section, I will conduct a study on citizens’ views on their awareness of the role of civic education and engagement in the strengthening of the United States democracy. The third section of the paper will capture various ways in which the citizens engage themselves in the exercising of their civic rights whereby they will be asked whether have ever done a given civic right for example voting or contributing in public social platforms such as Twitter or Facebook while questioning the accountancy and credibility of the government (Checkoway, 2013). Finally, the data will be analyzed and interpreted, and a conclusion shall be made from the study findings. Annotated Bibliography Eschrich, D. (2010). We the People: The Citizens and the Charter 2010 National Finalists’ Awareness of and Support for American Democratic Institutions and Processes. The Center for Civic Education Report. In his article, Eschrich presents a report of surveys conducted during the spring of 2010 by the Center for Civic Education on a sample of students from the We the People (WTF) national competition finals by evaluating their understanding and general thoughts concerning their civic education program namely “The citizen and the constitution.” The course is primarily meant to promote civic competence and responsibility among the nation’s elementary and secondary students. The key conclusions of the research are as follows. Firstly, they found that the WTP participants who scored higher percentages than the national average in every measurable category were more likely to exercise their civic rights through voting and engagement in civic activities. Secondly, those WTP participants were more likely to approve on the prudence of staying politically active. Thirdly, the were also more likely to agree with the individuals who express their unique and unpopular ideas. Finally, they found that informed participants were in agreement with free newspaper publishing. As seen from the above, this article covers my study question effectively. The findings indicate the immediate role civic education as well as civic engagement has in the strengthening of the democracy. For instance, we have seen that the participants who had undergone through that particular civic course, they were likely to vote, participate in other civic activities, grant others their freedom of expression and also support free newspaper publishing. Therefore, this article is one of my key references that I will use to support my objectives in my study. The survey was realistic which means that its findings are credible. Therefore, I recommend this article for referencing in any civic related study. Galston, W.A. (2007). Civic Insight, Civic Education, and Civic Engagement: A Summary of Recent Research. International Journal of Public Administration. Vol.30, 2007, pp.623‐ 642. In his article, Galston reports the state of dismal civic knowledge in the United States irrespective of the increasing standards of formal education. This study was motivated by the increase in the indicators depicting a decline in the civil engagement of American citizens for the recent past decades. The study also raises major concerns of the low faith and trust in government and civil institutions, especially among the young people. Contrarily, the volunteering is reported to have increased, and at the same time, charitable contributions fall as a percentage of the GDP. Galston’s findings conform to my projected findings; that it’s only through civil engagement that democracy can be strengthened. Additionally, he identifies almost similar issues to mine which motivates his research. Therefore, I feel that we are on the same page and I believe this article is one of the supportive references to my findings in my research paper. The information presented is highly credible as it predicts what is being witnessed even to date. Therefore, I recommend his work for referencing in any civic related study. Gooch, D.M., & Rogers, M.T. (2012). A Natural Depression of Civic Proportions: College Students in the Natural State Fall Short of the Conditioning Benchmark. Midsouth Administrative Science Review, Special Edition, Vol. 13 (1). In his article, Gooch presents a statistical analysis of a civic literacy assessment that was conducted on a sample of ATU college students in 2012. The assessment was across four dimensions of civic literacy which comprise of the American political heritage, current politics, government structure and the constitution. The key finding of the survey was 86.5% of the participants failed the naturalization test. Additionally, 96% of the students were unable to score a “C” or better grade. However, the researchers found that based on the pre-and post-tests, there was a substantial improvement in civic literacy after the one semester after students undertook a civic a one-semester civic course in a government class. Hence, Gooch’s report captures the some of the key civic elements covered under civic literacy which is among the various key variables in determining the civic awareness of the Americans which shall be covered in my study. Additionally, the data is obtained from a college which is the breeding ground for civic literate citizens. Therefore, the statistics are credible as they represent the projected civic literacy in colleges and young population in general. Therefore, this article is suitable for referencing in such a civic study. Kennedy, S. (2011). Civic Literacy: Charting the Dimensions and Consequences of a Civic Deficit. In his article, Kennedy presents reports of empirical research that based on evidence from various sources showing a deficit in civic literacy and constitutional competence in the United States. Among the depressing statistics covered comprise of; only 30% of the of the Americans can correctly name the three arms of government, less than half of the 12th-grade student can correctly define federalism among others. This article integrates incredibly findings from numerous reports that statistic`ally replicate the level of civil literacy in the United States. Initially, the author identifies one of the consequences of civic illiteracy as polarization in American political discourse due to ignorance of most fundamental American constitutional principles. Kennedy’s article is among the key articles that I will substantially utilize to acquire empirical data for my study. It is an integrated report covering findings from diverse studies on civic literacy. I recommend this article due to its empirical comprehensiveness due to numerous resources utilized. Milner, H. (2002). Civic Literacy: How Apprised Citizens Make Democracy Work. University Press of New England. In his article, Milner conducts an in-depth study into the topic of civic literacy in effective democracies. Eventually, he arrives at a conclusion that civil literacy is key forecaster of the political engagement. Additionally, the author defends his perspective on impacts of civic literacy with sufficient empirical findings from various democracies around the globe. Political knowledge is also reported to have remained flat for decades. However, the author definitively identifies the new attentiveness to civic education could save the Americans such adverse developments. Milner goes an extra mile in compiling empirical evidence from various democracies globally which is a factor that makes his report more preferable than many others. The author has done incredible work in taking the topic of civil literacy and democracy outside America. The results attained replicates the level of civic literacy from a global arena which is highly recommendable. RMC Research Corporation. (November 2007). We the People: Evaluation Report. The Center for Civic Education. The RMC Corporation compiled this reports that emphasize the importance of undertaking civic education in government classes as it impacts positively civic literacy and hence strengthens democracy. The article was prepared in 2007 where the performance of the participants from We the People (WTP) was compared to that of students in high school government classes and political science majors at two universities. The WTP students emerged victorious regarding performance as compared to the rest. Additionally, the WTP participants were found to have a better analysis, debating, and persuasion skills as compared to the rest. In their article, RMC was able to an emphasis on the poor civic education learned in government classes as compared to that covered by WTP participants. Therefore, it is a suggestion that the current curriculums in government classes fail to effectively address the issue civic literacy as expected of them. Therefore, necessary changes need to be effected. I recommend this article since it highlights on one of my projected recommendations to be included in my research paper. Civic Education According to Eschrich (2010) civic education is the involvement of citizens in their governance based on their informed, significant reflection, and on the understanding and acceptance of the rights and responsibilities that go with that membership. He further defined it as a tool that provides citizens with a clear picture of the political environment they are placed in. The center for civic education conducted surveys on a sample of students from the We the People (WTF) national competition finals with the aim of determining the effectiveness of civic education on democracy by evaluating their understanding and general thoughts concerning their civic education program namely “The citizen and the constitution.” The key conclusions of the research were as follows. Firstly, they found that the WTP participants who scored higher percentages than the national average in every measurable category were more likely to exercise their civic rights through voting and engagement in civic activities. Secondly, those WTP participants were more likely to approve on the prudence of staying politically active. Thirdly, they were also more likely to agree with the individuals who express their unique and unpopular ideas. Finally, they found that informed participants were in agreement with free newspaper publishing (Eschrich, 2010)). However, Galston (2007) was not in agreement with Eschrich (2010) findings as he argued that the state of civic knowledge in the United States was minimal despite the rising standards of formal education. In his studies, he found out that in the recent past decades there was an increase in the indicators depicting a decline in the civil engagement among the American citizens. He figured out that there were low faith and trust in government and public institutions, in particular among the young people (Galston, 2007). As seen from the above; this theory covers my study question adequately since the need for both formal and civic education is emphasized. The findings indicate the importance of civic education as well as civic engagement with an aim to strengthen democracy. These theories will help me in my research to find out the extent to which both formal education and civic education impacts the level of democracy. Civic literacy assessment According to Gooch & Rogers (2012), civic literacy assessment is a critical component of monitoring and evaluating the educational and learning progress about the government and political issues among the civilians. Gooch & Rogers (2012) conducted a statistical analysis of a civic literacy assessment on a sample of ATU College students in 2012.The assessment covered four dimensions of civic literacy which comprise of the American political heritage, government structure, current politics and the constitution. The key finding of the survey was 86.5% of the participants failed the naturalization test. Additionally, 96% of the students were unable to score a “C” or better grade. However, the researchers found that based on the pre-and post-tests, there was a substantial improvement in civic literacy after the one semester after students undertook a civic a one-semester civic course in a government class (Gooch & Rogers ,2012). In addition to this, Kennedy (2011) conducted research focused on the deficit in civic literacy and constitutional competence in the United States. Among the depressing statistics covered comprise of; only 30% of the of the Americans can correctly name the three arms of government, less than half of the 12th-grade student can accurately define federalism among others. In his findings, he noted that the polarization in American political discourse is caused by the civic illiteracy which is depicted by the ignorance of most fundamental American constitutional principles. To further justify civic literacy assessment theory, Milner (2002) conducted an in-depth study on the topic of civic literacy in functioning democracies. Eventually, he arrived at a conclusion that civic literacy is critical a forecaster of the political engagement. Additionally, the author defended his perspective on impacts of civic literacy with sufficient empirical findings from various democracies around the globe. However, the author definitively identifies the new attentiveness to civic education could save the Americans such adverse developments (Milner, 2002).This theory on civic literacy assessment covers most findings from diverse studies hence making it preferable for my research question. It is evident from the theories that civic education is important but further evaluation of the level of civic literacy makes it useful in promoting stronger democracy among the American people Research method The research methodology is the way of achieving the purpose of the study. It includes the case selection, target population, sampling for the study, data collection instruments and data analysis. Qualitative research relates to understanding aspects of social life and its methods which generate words, rather than numbers, as data for analysis. In this study Ethnographic research design will be used since it will involve physically going to the targets participants’ environment to understand their goals, cultures, challenges and motivations. A descriptive survey design will be adopted for this study (Cooper, 2013). A longitudinal time frame will fit this research since it will take a longer period to assess the level of civic education and its impacts on democracy among the people of America. A descriptive survey design will be best for this study as it describes characteristics associated with the subject population, and in particular factors that make them behave the way they do. According to Cooper and Schindler (Cooper, 2013), descriptive design discovers and measures the cause and effect of relationships between variables. References Checkoway, B., & Aldana, A. (2013). Four forms of youth civic engagement for a diverse democracy. Children and youth services review, 35(11), 1894-1899. Eschrich, D. (2010). We the People: The Citizens and the Charter 2010 National Finalists’ Awareness of and Support for American Democratic Institutions and Processes. The Center for Civic Education Report. Galston, W.A. (2007). Civic Insight, Civic Education, and Civic Engagement: A Summary of Recent Research. International Journal of Public Administration. Vol.30, 2007, pp.623‐642. Gooch, D.M., & Rogers, M.T. (2012). A Natural Depression of Civic Proportions: College Students in the Natural State Fall Short of the Conditioning Benchmark. Midsouth Administrative Science Review, Special Edition, Vol. 13 (1). Kennedy, S. (2011). Civic Literacy: Charting the Dimensions and Consequences of a Civic Deficit. Milner, H. (2002). Civic Literacy: How Apprised Citizens Make Democracy Work. University Press of New England. RMC Research Corporation. (November 2007). We the People: Evaluation Report. The Center for Civic Education. Skocpol, T. (2013). Diminished Democracy: From society to management in American civic life (Vol. 8). University of Oklahoma Press. Milner, H. (2002). Civic Literacy: How Apprised Citizens Make Democracy Work. University Press of New England. Presentation guidelines: Each presenter should do the following: 1. Introduce the research topic and state why you are studying this. 2. Mention the research question and explain your dependent and independent variable. 3. Mention some important facts about how this topic was previously studied. To do this you have to mention some key points from your literature review. (Mention 3 or 4) 4. Mention the research design you would use 5. Mention the data you would use (be as specific as you can) Ex: Interview data-d what kind of 6. Discuss the projected finding You will ask Each presenter will have 5-7 minutes to speak about the research project. It is a good idea to have a brief power point to help you organize the material. y slides only
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The research topic is civic engagement for a
stronger democracy.
The relationship between the government and
its citizens has really deteriorated . Civic
education and engagement will ensure that
citizens are part of major important decisions.
The research question is “Does Civic
Engagement Strength...


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