Democracy thrives when people are engaged with each other and their communities.
But the U.S. has experienced a decline in this civic health over the last couple of decades.
Fewer people are joining clubs, spending more time online, and less time engaging in real dialogue.
Mary Beth Collins says that’s not good for democracy. She’s the Executive Director of the Center for Community and nonprofit Studies at the University of Wisconsin- Madison.
“The kind of connection and joining that people had been doing in the past phases of our history was always a really big element of why we were able to have a successful participatory democracy,” said Collins. “Not that it was always perfect, but it was always a strength that people were out in the community, joining with each other, talking through issues, getting involved with things.”
Collins says there’s a lot that contributes to the decline including the rise in social media and technology, the COVID-19 pandemic, the decline in local news, and changes in political tactics that encourages people to self-sort into different sides.
“It's a time when getting reconnected with each other in our communities is really important and being curious and finding really good information and being critical and discerning of information, those things are all really important right now as we regain our civic health and kind of our muscle memory about how to be in community and how to be in democracy together,” said Collins.
Collins is a facilitator for the Civic Health of Wisconsin Initiative which is a non-partisan coalition working to improve civic health.
There’s a lot of different approaches they’re taking including civic education in schools, groups promoting community engagement to solve an issue or provide support, and the effort to bring back more local news.
“There's just a fascinating range of efforts happening across Wisconsin that connect to a bigger movement for civic health,” said Collins. “The Civic Health of Wisconsin Initiative is a hub where all of those types of efforts and individuals that are interested in those efforts can connect.”
Collins will be talking about the initiative, civic health trends, and how people can improve their civic health at this month’s Science on Tap Minocqua.
“Hopefully we’ll get people feeling inspired that we can all be a part of a positive change,” said Collins.
Science on Tap is Thursday, Nov. 6 at 6:30 p.m. at Rocky Reef Brewing Company in Woodruff.
You can also stream it online.
