So far, we have argued that although high levels of engagement during the campaign represent an opportunity, civic engagement will not automatically continue just because many voters are involved politically right now. We have also argued that an important way to sustain engagement is to change federal and other laws and policies to encourage and support various specific forms of participation, such as community and national service, civic education, and large-scale policy deliberations.

Our efforts to sustain civic engagement will depend on how we talk about this goal. Terms like “citizenship,” “service,” “politics,” and, indeed, “civic engagement” have problematic connotations—and different connotations depending on the audience. As a first step to improve the effectiveness of how we talk about engagement, we asked respondents to say what first came to their mind when they heard two terms randomly selected from a list of six: “service,” “citizenship,” “civic engagement,” “democracy,” “social entrepreneurship,” and “community organizing.”

This was just a first step. It is important to probe other words and phrases—such as “patriotism,” “community service,” “activism,” and “politics,” among others—and to discuss such concepts in situations that allow follow- up questions and explanations. However, the following results provide useful preliminary guidance. Here we report combined data from the telephone sample (in which respondents replied orally, and their answers were transcribed) and the online sample (in which participants typed their contributions), for a total of 4,010 responses (about 668 for each word/phrase).16

Overall, we find that most Americans do not associate any of these words or phrases with an active form of citizenship in which individuals and groups voluntarily discuss, define, and address public problems. In general, these terms suggest individual “helping” behavior or roles for formal institutions such as the government; and some words simply puzzle most respondents.

“Service”
This word elicited responses from most respondents who were asked about it; only 12% gave no response or said they didn’t know what to say. Twenty-seven percent said something about helping others in their local community. Typical responses included “giving back to others,” “helping people” or “clubs and organizations.” Almost as many (26%) mentioned the military. Only two percent gave a negative response, and less than one percent cited the United States or American identity. Twenty-three percent—a relatively high proportion in comparison to the other words we probed—offered responses that were unique or difficult to categorize, meaning that the term “service” has many different definitions.

“Citizenship”
The most common type of response (at 27%) involved American identity: being born or naturalized in the United States or not being foreign. A substantial proportion of these responses drew contrasts between American citizens and immigrants: for example, “I am an American. I belong to the best country in the world. People who become American citizens should speak English.” An additional 8% mentioned national origin without specifying the United States—for them, “citizenship” meant belonging to any country. One fifth of the sample gave responses that mentioned some kind of right or duty that comes with legal citizenship, such as voting or jury duty. Twenty-nine percent of Republicans and 18% of Democrats thought of rights or duties. A relatively large number (13%) gave a vague positive response, such as “loyalty” or “honor.” About 6% cited some form of local engagement or helping other people, for example, “Small town citizens doing the right thing on a daily basis.” Very few responses were negative about the concept itself. Less than 10 percent chose not to respond.

“Civic engagement”
Almost one third of respondents felt they did not know what this phrase meant, and another 22 percent gave miscellaneous responses that we were unable to classify. Despite the popularity of the phrase in education today, Millennials were the most likely (at 42%) to say they didn’t know what it meant. Eighteen percent of the whole sample mentioned community involvement or helping others. Sixteen percent mentioned forms of political participation or political institutions, such as the city government. Six percent cited rights or duties, usually in a vague way. Three percent gave a vague positive response (such as “good” or “important”) and about 2 percent offered a negative answer such as “Fluff, PR stuff,” or “uptight formal pretension.”

“Democracy”
This word provoked a wide range or responses, including a relatively high rate (13%) of negative answers: e.g., “unfair, a joke, crooks....” “Time to get back on track and do something for our people,” “not here in ‘the land of the free’ -- Taxed to death,” or “I believe that we live in a ‘democracy’ that caters to big business and certain ‘rich’ lobb[y]ists....” When they heard the word “Democracy,” 19% of the Generation-X respondents gave vague, negative responses, compared to 10% of Millennials, 13% of Boomers and 10% of Seniors. A smaller number— eight percent—gave vague positive responses such as “good,” “wonderful,” or “glad to be part of it.” Neutral answers were frequent. One in five cited some kind of right or duty, such as voting. Another 12% mentioned rules of decision-making, such as majority-rule; and 9% cited the government. Almost 7% invoked American identity or citizenship; but only two respondents mentioned community involvement or helping others, and only three respondents offered any form of citizen political engagement other than voting.

“Social entrepreneurship”
We were thinking of citizens’ efforts to address social problems by creating new programs or organizations (including new businesses). Very few respondents had these ideas in mind. Thirty-eight percent said they did not know what this phrase meant. The Millennials were more likely than others to answer this question, although 32% of them declined. An additional 23% gave responses that we were unable to interpret or classify. Seventeen percent provided answers that suggested they were thinking about standard businesses or capitalism in general. Seven percent mentioned somehow helping other people or working in the community, which came fairly close to our conception. Four percent gave negative answers, for instance, “people stealing from me,” “That sounds like a pathetic socialist nanny state,” or “do not like, sounds republican.”

“Community organizing”
The most common category of responses, at 31%, involved helping others locally. These responses suggested that the respondents basically identified community organizing with volunteering or charity, although sometimes there was an emphasis on the process of being organized (e.g., “group of people getting together for one cause”). Older respondents were less likely to mention helping behaviors. Twenty-one percent said they did not know what this phrase meant. Ten percent gave a vague positive response (“good,” “important”) and five percent offered a vague negative answer (“opinionated,” “pushy,” or “waste of time”). Almost 6% mentioned a particular community organization such as the YMCA, labor unions, or a neighborhood watch. A total of about 5% either cited political activity or the government in some way. Only seven individuals mentioned Barack Obama, who has talked extensively about his community organizing experience.



It would appear that all these words and phrases have some promise but also significant limitations. “Citizenship” most commonly invoked United States national identity, not any form of activity by individuals and voluntary groups. It would be important to build on the rarely expressed view that citizenship implies some kind of civic action.

“Service” and “community organizing” elicited many responses about completely non-controversial “helping” behavior. We believe that fully engaged citizens not only provide free labor but also discuss underlying issues and engage with political institutions; but these forms of participation do not come into many Americans’ minds when they hear “service” or “community organizing.” For community organizers, our survey suggests that their challenge is not that people associate their work with controversial political movements, but rather than they think of it as a “helping” behavior, like service. “Democracy” had relatively prevalent negative connotations, especially for Generation X, and for many it meant a formal process of voting or decision-making. It seems important to show that democracy is at its best when citizens personally participate, although few respondents volunteered responses suggesting that they were thinking along those lines.

Few people knew what “social entrepreneurship” or “civic engagement” is. The largest groups of respondents who offered replies to these terms cited, respectively, business and the government (not citizen-centered action). These phrases may have potential; their main disadvantage right now is the high proportion of respondents who have not heard them before.