Civics
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Civics is the study of rights and duties of citizenship. In other words, it is the study of government with attention to the role of citizens ― as opposed to external factors ― in the operation and oversight of government.
Within a given political or ethical tradition, civics refers to educating the citizens. The history of civics dates back to the earliest theories of civics by Confucius in ancient China and Plato in ancient Greece. These traditions in general have led to modern distinctions between the West and the East, and two very different concepts of right and justice and ethics in public life.
Forms of civic thought
Of special concern are the choice of a form of government and (if this is any form of democracy) the design of an electoral system and ongoing electoral reform. This involves explicitly comparing voting systems, wealth distribution and the decentralization of political and legal power, control of legal systems and adoption of legal codes, and even political privacy — all seen as important to avoid a dystrophy or a lapse into some undesirable state of totalitarianism or theocracy. Each of these concerns tends to make the process of governance different, as variations in these norms tend to produce a quite different kind of state. Civics was often simply concerned with the balance of power between say an aristocracy and monarchy—a concern echoed to this day in the struggles for power between different levels of rulers—say of the weaker nation-states to establish a binding international law that will have an effect even on the stronger ones. Thus world government is itself properly a civic problem. Also, it is the study of duties and rights of citizenship.
On smaller scales, modern human development theory attempts to unify ethics and small-scale politics with the urban and rural economics of sustainable development. Notable theorists including Jane Jacobs and Carol Moore argue that political secession of either cities or distinct bio regions and cultures is an essential pre-requisite to applying any widely shared ethics, as the ethical views of urban and rural people, different cultures or those engaged in different types of agriculture, are irreconcilably different. This extreme advocacy of decentralization is hardly uncommon, and leads to the minimal theory of civics – anarchism.
Civics refers not to the ethical or moral or political basis by which a ruler acquires power, but only to the processes and procedures they follow in actually exercising it. Thus, some figures, e.g. Napoleon, count as totalitarian because they instituted a legal code and altered rules of succession to favor themselves and their families. Meanwhile, other figures who were arguably more cruel or arbitrary are ranked as examples of lesser public trust, because in practice they followed clearer procedures.
Examples of different types
Most civic theories are more trusting of public institutions, and can be characterizing on a scale from least (mob rule) to most (the totalitarian) degree of trust placed in key public institutions. At the risk of extreme oversimplification, an historical view of civic theory in action suggests that the theories be ranked as follows:
| Philosophy | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Ochlocracy (aka: Mob Rule) | Trusting of the instincts and power of large groups—no consistent civics at all. | |
| Anarchism | No government or other hierarchy, a common ethical code enforced only by personal governance and voluntary association. | |
| Monarchy | A minimal hierarchy—e.g. sometimes said to include Eco-anarchism | |
| Libertarianism | A philosophy based on the premise that all individuals are sovereign over their own lives and no one should be forced to sacrifice his/her values or property for the benefit of others. The government would be limited to protection of the country. | |
| Direct democracy | Decisions made directly by the people without guidance or moral suasion, usually relying on multiple choices laid out by experts | as advocated by Ross Perot |
| Deliberative democracy | Decisions made by locally-grouped citizens obligated to participate in consensus decision making process | as advocated by Ralph Nader |
| Representative democracy | A political class of elected representatives is trusted to carry out duties for the electors – these may be responsible to any group in society, or none, once elected | United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, USA, France, Germany, India |
| Technocracy | Reliance on castes of bureaucrats and scientists to rule society, and define risk for the whole society – sometimes generalized into anticipatory democracy. Can be interpreted as leading to or including kleptocracy | China |
| Aristocracy | General trust in one class in society to rule and protect, e.g. members of particular noble families that have worked for and/or defended the community across many generations (i.e. "old" money), upholding traditions, standards of living, art, culture, commerce, and defense. Not to be confused with plutocracy, where rule is based solely on financial wealth. | |
| Theocracy | Government lead by religious beliefs or culture. Theocracies are led by powerful religious figures and follow rules based on religious documents. | Vatican City |
| Constitutional monarchy | A monarch, possibly purely symbolic and devoted to moral example, avoiding vesting such popularity in any less trustworthy political figure—typically tied to at least some deliberative institutions, and making the monarch a tiebreaker or mediator or coach | United Kingdom, Spain, Japan |
| Absolute monarchy | A monarchy who carries absolute power, with no requirement to answer to the legislature, judiciary, or the citizenry. Rule is generally acquired hereditarily. | Saudi Arabia, Brunei, Oman |
| Dictatorship | A political or military ruler who has the powers of the monarch, but whose basis for rule is not hereditary, but based upon military or political power | Benito Mussolini, Napoleon Bonaparte, Adolf Hitler, Julius Caesar, many Roman Emperors, Joseph Stalin, Fidel Castro |
| Note: examples are included only to help familiarize readers with the basic idea of the scale—they are not intended to be conclusive or to categorize these individuals other than the civics that they exercise or exemplify. | ||
See also
