Civic disengagement, in large enough doses, breeds feelings of alienation and powerlessness among the public. And no democracy — not even ours, which has endured for nearly 250 years — can survive such a plague.
People, when combined in Tocquevillian association, however, offer a formidable antidote.
Earlier this week, Erin Norman, the Lee Family fellow and senior director of communications strategies at State Policy Network, wrote an instructive article on the robustness of community for Governing. In looking at the latest World Happiness Report (WHR), she notes that America has fallen eight places, from 15th to 23rd, since just last year.
Americans increasingly feel little connection to their communities. They also feel generally misanthropic and distrustful of the institutions and individuals around them, and have a potent and unrelenting sense of despondency and impotence in their ability to make a difference in politics.
Norman says that there is one ingredient that can reverse this toxic trend: community.
She writes:
There is no silver-bullet solution for improving human happiness. But creating a stronger sense of community, and especially one in which people feel they can provide input and shape results, will drive happiness up.
The all too common problem with this prescription, however, is in the creation of community. Are we to wait for a bottom-up spiritual revolution from the citizenry, or should we begin to entertain some top-down solutions from Washington?
When I asked Norman about her thoughts on top-down policy proposals, she answered from her perspective as a parent:
There is a huge difference between parents organizing a play date, where activities and stations are set up, and throwing a bunch of kids in a yard with a few balls and sticks and whatever else they find. There is a huge difference in the bonds and interactions that happen.
This is a brilliant way to look at the problem: In this sense, we are all children who refuse to play with one another when we’re coerced.
The solution to the problem, then, must be bottom-up.“A government task force,” Norman said, “will not get the widow out of her house,” adding, “It’s great that there are people in Washington that see the problem and want to do something about it, but you cannot orchestrate social connection.”
Ultimately, she said, people must understand that their best hope of obtaining meaning and purpose is to engage in their local community and municipal government, where it’s much easier to effect change.
Participation in matters that are close to us and that affect us intimately — as opposed to the milieu of the national news cycle — allows citizens to reclaim power and break the debilitating shackles of estrangement and alienation.
In Better Together, Robert Putnam and Lewis Feldstein tell the story of Dudley Street, a poor, disenfranchised, and dangerous neighborhood in Boston. The Mabel Louise Riley Foundation, which offers small grants to various community initiatives, caught wind of the sorry state of Dudley Street and decided to invest in its improvement. What they were met with, however, was highly suspicious and distrusting locals, who’d never before been lent a listening ear. The Riley Foundation, in partnership with local community leaders, decided to take a leap of faith and delegate authority and decision-making abilities to the residents themselves. The results were nearly unthinkable. Through the power of collective action, the community completely turned things around. A neighborhood once typified by crime and neglect was now safe and conducive to small businesses. When Bob Holmes, one of the foundation’s trustees, was asked what went right, he replied, “If you want to know what a neighborhood needs, ask the residents.”
We can eliminate so many degrees of separation by involving ourselves in what really matters. This not only improves the state of our communities, but our psychological well-being, too.
“One of the best things that higher levels of government can do,” Norman concluded, “is divest power so that there is more opportunity at the community level.”