Role of Civic Engagement to the Local Economy - Essay Example

?Citizenship and Democracy Introduction The world is made up of different societies. The natural setting of each society and the environment in which it is found determines the type of laws that the leadership put in place to manage. Therefore leadership is contingent. In leadership, the people in authority have different ways of guiding the way forward. Democracy is one of these methods. There are several definitions of democracy. Depending on the field of application in question, the end idea is the involvement of the people. Democracy is a political unit where all its members have the mandate to manage it. A democracy is however controlled by a leader who has the majority backing of the people. Citizenship on the other hand refers to the person who has an entitlement to the rights and privileges of the society that he lives in as a freeman. According to Ricky van Oers (2010), citizenship involves a person living in a state and swearing his allegiance to it and therefore has an entitlement to its protection. Therefore, citizenship, democracy and civic engagement have similar roles in the progress of a society. Civic engagement therefore refers to the qualitative development of the society by use of both political means and non-political means (Oers, Ersboll, & Kostakopoulou, 2010 ). This paper seeks to make integration between leadership and democracy by first expounding on the roles of the civic engagement to the society’s economic strength and then analyze the effects of lack of democracy to the economy of a society. Role of civic engagement to the local economy The society is made up of the involvement of all the sociological perspectives which are the family, the school, the church and the media (Ehrlich, 2000). The importance of the society involvement to the development thereof cannot be under estimated. The first role of civic engagement is the promotion of peace and harmonious living among the people of a society. A civil society that is based on the strength of all the citizens in promoting its activities stands to remain economically viable. The peace has to exist between the citizens and the government depending on the governance method used. The society is usually connected to the government by the civil society organizations regardless of the method of ruler ship in place. In situations where the government is facing a social strife, the vulnerability of the society will make the existence of personal engagement in economic activities that promote the wellbeing of the society to cease. Researchers have shown that the existence of a public sector that is sound is largely dependent on the society’s strong homogenous engagement in the open public realm. Much example can be drawn from the rich Congolese society in central Africa where there has never been harmonious co-existence of a strong society. This has led to continuous lack of peace in the central government and therefore unable to develop effectively. The second role of civic engagement is to help strike a balance between accountability by the government and the decision the society makes on leadership. The way to democracy, autocracy, authoritarianism or laissez faire type of leadership will largely depend on the type and level of civic engagement that the society decides to uphold. Most government crises are as a result of the continuous contradiction existing between the society and the government itself. In most cases, the society will to a large extend decide the type of leadership it requires to put in place the development of the local economy. Therefore, the choice of a sound leader is not based on the loyalty to the ruling regime but substantially on the voice of the society. A member of the society who holds sound citizenship criterion loves his native land and acts to protect the legitimacy of the same place. Citizens have social accountability this accountability is directed towards the society. From the sociological philosophy, it is said that building a family is building the state. Therefore responsible citizens are always made from families. The economy of the society will remain progressive when the civil society takes a unilateral decision to progress through sound elective decisions (Reuben, 2003). The third role of civic engagement to the local economy is to promote the engagement of the citizens in promoting the concerns of the community. Planning, training, support to the community especially the technical support is pre-requisites for the all-inclusive society. This can be referred to as the instrument that can be used to measure and air what problems they have, to figure out all the possible choices in terms of costs and to look at the possible benefits that would occur and the trade-offs related to the problems. It also helps to bring a collective bargain to the issues associated with the society. These are the people who are in a good position to try and look for possible and long lasting solutions to the problems. This practice was found viable by the director of National Cooperative Extension in Alabama, M.L.Wilson in 1940 after engagement of the Alabama society in the solution to their own problems. This was in his bid to find a solution to the rural development in the area of Alabama. The people proposed the engagement of the society through three methods; community leadership and the subsequent engagement of the citizens, development of education and workforce and thirdly, installation and involvement of the communications technology in the area. This was a strategic plan initiated by the people for themselves and the desire to continue with the central government leadership in the state was found dysfunctional (Mathews, 2012). It was just at this point that the real community progress started being realized in Alabama. The involvement of the community saw devolution of resources from the central state headquarters to the civil society groups in the area which in turn came with education, technology and a sense of belonging to the government. All these are positive situations to the local economy of Alabama and were taken seriously by the state government because the proposals were all inclusive as far as the civic engagement concerned. Seiko Sugita(2011) after a critical analysis of the transformations in the Arab world cites that civic engagement has a major role of trying to foster crucial interactive behavior between the civil society groups and the other institutions that are relevant in increasing the sound voice of the society that may not be recognized by the violators of human dignity. In so doing, the interactive behavior is passed on and more knowledge is gained about how some development activities can best and economically be done. The interaction takes several forms but the end product would be to harmonize the community in one occasion. From volunteerism to electoral participation and organizational involvement, civic engagement still goes back to serving the community in its entirety. It inculcates morals of personal responsibility and self-evaluation to individuals and the society at large. The civic activism and the youth development are keys to measuring the level of ability of the members of the society to comfortably do service to their community. When service is centralized within the community, the economic impact is that there is retention of all knowledge that would have been brain-drained elsewhere. There is enough knowledge and ability in the society that makes it self-dependent and avoids continuous strife with the government (Sugita, 2012). The issue of democracy is always manifested when the citizens have a statement in the affairs of their community. Communal work as seen above indicates the presence of citizenship among the society members. A society that loves itself and its environment is at an advanced stage of promoting democracy of its own. Therefore, this part has a clear indication that when the members of the society are involved in the decision making of issues concerning their own environment, there is open democracy which helps promotion of the economic stability of the area. Effects of lack of democracy to development Democracy as discussed is the rule of the majority. It has been proved that democracy and development are equated as was seen in the Alabama case. Equally important to note here is that lack of it is reciprocates development (Sugita, 2012). The Arab uprising that was witnessed recently was a cry for democracy as opposed to dictatorship, authoritarianism, autocracy and bureaucracy. Lack of democracy is caused by individuals who are in power and keep assuming absolute decision making on behalf of all the others without their mutual concession. This is mostly done for political or financial reasons to the dire detriment of the citizens. The first detrimental fact about lack of democracy is the depletion of the resources available since acts of dictatorship are done as a result of interest in personalizing some resource. At the world stage, when Adolf Hitler waged war against Europe and his neighbors, there was mass destruction to the German economy and mass suffering of the entire German population because of the wrong view that outsiders had for the society. Depletion of resources instead of making use of them increases the level of under-development and retarded development. To the local societies, an autocratic leader will make the fear of the unknown to happen. The people with finances are scared of starting businesses and the professional drain from the society increases at a very high rate. In the event of this happening, the society lacks the right human resource to venture into productive activities which would cause the economy to grow. In so doing, there is a direct implication of retarded growth and poverty to the people. Another characteristic of the dictatorship regime is the presence of day to day availability of coups, rebellions and demonstrations. The effect of these on the development of the society cannot be overstated. Sugita in his analysis of the Arab world states that the youth below 25 years make up 75%of the population. This is a risky situation as s witnessed when they revolted in Libya, Egypt, Tunisia and the continuing strife in Syria. It takes a long time to remove a dictator from power and the destruction caused takes so much of resources to rebuild (Sugita, 2012). Therefore, lack of democracy is again proved to have a direct proportion with underdevelopment. The people who revolt are the young talented and energetic youth who should channel this energy to the development of their society. Moreover, there is no peace in such times to carry out successful business practices (sharp, 2010). The last very fatal and asocial trait about lack of democracy and the presence of dictatorship is the presence of foreign powers that are dubbed the saviors by the dictators. When this happens, the local society’s work will be to watch as their resources are being managed. These foreigners become actively involved in the decisions that run the society in total disregard of the would-have-been views of the society. This is done in most cases when these foreigners have found the availability of some treasurable resource. The foreigners may be citizens but from a far state or they may be external foreigners at the plight of those in power. This creates a situation of rebellion amongst the local civil society groups and individuals which in real terms terminate the growth of the local economy (sharp, 2010). Conclusion Citizenship and democracy are the basis upon which a society addresses the issues of growth. The paper has highlighted an analytical view of the roles of civic engagement and was found to be a foundation upon which the basics of a society’s growth are built. It has also highlighted the need for fostering democracy by relating lack of it to under development. It therefore critically important that when a society clings on citizenship and democracy through civic engagement, there will be progress towards development References Ehrlich, T. (2000, 10 07). The Definition of Civic Engagement. Retrieved 11 04, 2012, from New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/ref/college/collegespecial2/coll_aascu_defi.html Mathews, D. (2012, 07 18). Civic Engagement and Economic Development. Economic and Community Development. Alabama, Alabama, USA: Auburn University. Oers, R. V., Ersboll, E., & Kostakopoulou, T. ( 2010 ). A Re-Definition of Belonging, Language and Integration Tests in Europe. Hague: BRILL. Reuben, W. (2003, 03 30). The Role of Civic Engagement and Social Accountability in the Governance Equation. Retrieved 11 04, 2012, from Environmental and Social Sustainable Development Network: http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTPCENG/214574-1118058447732/20526739/sdn75.pdf Sharp, G. (2010). From Dictatorship to Democracy A Conceptual Framework for Liberation. Boston, Massachusetts : The Albert Einstein Institution. Sugita, S. (2012). Arab Youth,Civic Engagement & Economic Participation. Beirut: UNESCO Regional Bureau - Beirut. Read More