Civic Thought and Leadership: A Higher Civics to Sustain American Constitutional Democracy

Abstract

Multiple civic crises facing American constitutional democracy—deepening political polarization and dysfunction, loss of confidence in major institutions and professions, and collapse of confidence in higher education—can be simultaneously redressed by restoring traditional civic education in universities and colleges. A nascent national reform in public universities, establishing departments of civic thought and leadership, reintroduces a blend of classical liberal arts and American civic education. This restores a core mission of truth-seeking and Socratic debate to universities, while providing the higher civics needed to perpetuate the American legal and constitutional order through non-partisan, non-ideological preparation of thoughtful citizens and leaders with the necessary civic knowledge and civic virtues, including commitment to the rule of law and American constitutionalism.

Incentivizing Civic Engagement at Public and Private Universities: Tax Exemptions, Laws, and Critical Dialogues

“…Indeed, many of the contributors to this Special Issue are motivated by this same sense of urgency. Paul Carrese (2024) and Kody Cooper (2024) see the rationale for civic institutes on university campuses as very much tied to the renewal of citizenship, and our proposed use of the tax code (described below), to push all schools accepting federal funds in the direction of more opportunities for their students to speak and assemble freely, reflects many of the same priorities as do their articles.…”

“…We argue that our current participation and polarization crises (see above-Section 3) represent precisely such an opening for needed national policy, which it is possible to advance through the selective application of tax exemptions. Paul Carrese, in this issue, has also referred to the crisis in civics education as a national security imperative (Carrese 2024).…”