Tabla de Contenidos
Civic engagement has been defined by various authors, who coincide in pointing out the relationship between this concept and the way in which people, exercising their citizenship, get involved with political and non-political issues in their environment. In this context, being a citizen means being a member of a community, with equal rights with others and with the same opportunities to influence the fate of the community.
Civic Engagement Definitions
Civic commitment is characterized by the variety of meanings or multiplicity of meanings that different authors have given it. For example, for Ehrlich (2000) it consists of promoting the quality of life of the community through both political processes, such as when people intervene in public affairs with their opinion, their vote, or in any other way, as non-political. In this sense, it implies the development of knowledge (such as rights), skills (such as communication), values (such as responsibility), and motivation (such as that which gives political efficacy).
On the other hand, the World Bank understands civic engagement as the participation of private actors in the public sphere, through interaction between government organizations, multilateral institutions, and business with civil organizations, in order to achieve common goals.
However, other authors differentiate participation from commitment. According to Zani and Barrett (2012), “participation” is active behavior, while “engagement” is interest, knowledge, or paying attention to political issues. That is to say that while participation refers to conduct, commitment involves certain dispositions and states of mind.
Therefore, the commitment can be evidenced, for example, in the levels of political knowledge, in the attention paid to the news in the media, in the frequency with which people get involved in debates or in issues civics. Understood in this way, for Levine (2011), civic engagement includes activities that express an emotional connection with the ideals and institutions of public life.
According to Schulz (2016), this emotional connection is played out in the field of citizenship: the individual becomes a citizen when they remain informed and interested in the affairs of their community in order to participate in it effectively. Consequently, it is from the exercise of citizenship that true civic commitment arises, such as the actions of communities that benefit from the collaboration of their citizens. In this way, communities have to facilitate the right of citizenship, and citizens have the responsibility to participate in their communities.
Dimensions of civic engagement
Authors such as Campbell (2006) refer to civic commitment as a concept made up of the following dimensions.
| Dimension | Definition |
| Political compromise | Activities that aim to influence public policy. |
| electoral participation | I vote in the elections. |
| interpersonal trust | Trust in the people of the community. |
| Institutional trust | Trust in organizations, institutions, government representatives and political parties. |
| Tolerance | Willingness to recognize and respect the civil rights of other communities. |
| political knowledge | Knowledge about democratic institutions and processes. |
Types of civic engagement
Civic commitment can be evidenced through volunteer actions, activism and electoral participation.
Civic engagement actions
Currently, civic commitment responds to problems such as global warming, poverty, job insecurity, the violation of various human rights, corruption and insecurity, among others. Stakeholders respond to these situations through activism, protests, social media mobilization, fundraising, and volunteerism.
The United Nations Development Program UNDP recently detected the impairment of freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly; also the harassment of activists, media personnel and human rights defenders, which reduces the possibilities of manifesting civic engagement around the world.
Therefore, UNDP committed to guaranteeing that the expectations of citizens through initiatives such as the promotion of social responsibility in Liberia, support for a more inclusive constitutional process in Chile, the promotion of participatory governance at the local level in Bangladesh, exploring financing modalities for civil society organizations in the Western Balkans, among others.
Sources
Blancafort, S. Civic competence and attitudes towards the welfare state: the public opinion of Spanish citizens . (Doctoral thesis) Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain: 2012.
García-Arnaldos, M. Responsibility and civic commitment . Philosophy Studies. 63: 151-167, 2020.
National Institute for the Evaluation of Education. Civics: an evaluation of citizen training. 5 What it evaluates: Civic participation. Mexico , sf
Lister, S., Sapienza, E. In defense of civic space – Promoting a public sphere appropriate to today’s world . In United Nations Development Program UNDP, 2021.
UNICEF. We participate and they listen to us! Guidelines for the participation and civic commitment of children and adolescents . United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Three United Nations Plaza New York, 2020.
