As Americans emerge from the political convention season, the national conversation is dominated by how to jump start our economy and put more than 12 million Americans back to work. While Barack Obama and Mitt Romney have starkly different views of the road to recovery, they both believe in the importance of strong communities, especially in hard times. While economic recovery and community have long been intertwined, we now have new evidence that vigorous civil society may help lower unemployment.

A new study by the National Conference on Citizenship, with partners including the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and CIRCLE, found that cities, counties and states with a strong civic foundation have weathered the economic recession better than those without such civic stock. An analysis of 942 metro areas, 3,100 counties and all 50 states since 2006 shows that two civic benchmarks may drive lower rates of unemployment. Communities with a large number of nonprofits that directly engage residents in activities and services, such as military and veterans organizations, recreational clubs, and fraternal societies, experienced considerably smaller increases in unemployment than communities that faced similar economic circumstances.

Controlling for other possible demographic and economic factors, such as levels of education, race and ethnicity, housing-price inflation, and dependence on oil and gas extraction, the report found that for individuals who held jobs in 2008, the odds of becoming unemployed were cut in half if they lived in a community with a higher number of nonprofit organizations. While almost all of the counties lost jobs during the recession, counties with more nonprofits lost fewer jobs between 2006 and 2009. We have always known that nonprofits play a critical in many communities - but now we have more evidence that they may be a lynchpin of local economies.

The study also found that "social cohesion" - the interaction and trust among friends, family and neighbors - is a strong indicator of a community's ability to weather a recession. States with high social cohesion had unemployment rates two percentage points lower than their less connected and trusting counterparts.

And while each of nonprofit density and social cohesion is valuable in preventing unemployment increases, communities with high levels of both do even better. The states that ranked in the top 10 and bottom 10 on those two civic measures started out with similar unemployment rates in 2006, but by 2010, they had diverged. The top 10 in civic health had unemployment rates of 6.5 percent, considerably better than the 10.8 percent rate in the bottom 10 states.

When comparing states, Utah, West Virginia, and Maine lead the way with the highest levels of nonprofit density and social cohesion and have been able to weather the economic climate better than California, Indiana, and Nevada - states that have been hit hard by the economy and have the lowest levels of nonprofits and social collaboration and trust.

So what's going on? We can't say for sure, but there are compelling explanations. When civic health is higher, people have more affection and optimism for their own communities and put more trust in their neighbors. When investors, employers, and citizens feel greater commitment to the places in which they live, they may be more likely to make economic decisions that generate or protect local jobs. That can mean an investor putting money into a local manufacturing plant, or a resident choosing to buy services from a neighbor rather than purchasing a consumer product made far away. These small choices have ripple effects if the people they hire also spend their money locally, spurring on the economy.

As our candidates describe their opposing tax and investment policies to address our nation's economic woes, we should heed their common view of commitment to community and social capital as essential elements towards resilient communities and putting Americans back to work.

ABOUT THE WRITERS

John Bridgeland is chairman of the Board of Advisors for National Conference on Citizenship, president and CEO of Civic Enterprises, and former director of the White House Domestic Policy Council under President George W. Bush. William A. Galston holds the Ezra Zilkha Chair in the Brookings Institution's Governance Studies Program and is a former domestic policy adviser to President Bill Clinton. Readers may write to the authors in care of Civic Enterprises LLC, 1101 14th Street NW, Suite 1260, Washington, D.C. 20005.

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