Measuring the Health of a Democracy with the Civic Health Index
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As Election Day approaches, the importance of voting is at the forefront of many conversations.
However, a healthy democracy relies not just on ballots cast, but on active, connected, and informed communities—what we refer to as civic health.
Today, we’re taking a closer look at the concept of civic health and how data—from voting rates to social trust—can reveal a lot about the strengths and challenges our communities face.
We’ll also discuss how nonprofits can help promote civic health without stepping into partisan territory.
You’ll hear:
(0:59) What civic health is and the challenges it faces
(03:57) National trends in civic engagement
(09:07) State-level insights from Georgia and North Carolina
(12:51) Five ways nonprofits can strengthen civic health
Resources Mentioned
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Drew Reynolds: Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Common Good Data Podcast. My name is Drew Reynolds. Today, we are going to have an election day themed podcast because we're coming out on November 4th, the day before the 2024, uh, U. S. national federal, um, presidential election. And You know, what we're going to do today is we're going to focus on something called civic health.
Now, many of you know that we measure health, uh, often of individuals, a lot. And we talk about that a lot of this podcast, like health of individuals, physical health, mental health. But today we're going to sort of try to approach the question, what does it look like to measure the health of a society, of a community?
And we're going to look specifically at civic health. to answer that question. You might even rephrase the question more bluntly as, how healthy is a democracy? And we're going to look at some data that can help better inform us about how we might answer that question. So what is civic health? And how might we promote civic health?
So the [00:01:00] National Conference on Citizenship defines civic health as just the way that communities are organized to define and address social problems. And, We've had some concerns about civic health, uh, leading up into this election. I think a lot of people have been concerned, maybe have a sense of nervousness going into tomorrow.
Uh, but you know, the challenges that we see are, do people, are people are seeing a decline in, in trust in elections, uh, our recognition of. greater partisanship and polarization that's driving politics. There's been challenges to voting rights and access to the ballot at national and state levels, questions on whether or not our judiciary is truly independent.
And then of course, there is the example of the insurrection on January 6th, uh, uh, where individuals are trying to overturn the results of a national election. And yet also America has had some historic rates of engagement. So in the wake of the George Floyd, um, um, protests, for example. There was an example in which the United States, we had more people coming out [00:02:00] to engage in forms of protest and civil civic discourse than ever before.
And in 2020, we had the highest rates of voter participation, uh, in any election in the 21st century. And so what we're seeing is, Some interesting things going on, uh, that might point in different directions. So what are the data telling us then about how healthy our democracy is? Well, to answer this question, we're going to spend some time today engaging in the data from the Civic Health Index, and that's a set of data that's been put together by the National Conference on Citizenship, which I alluded to earlier, who defined, uh, civic health for us.
It's a national organization that's focused on promoting civic health and And which provides some of the most comprehensive data that we can find, uh, reporting on civic health in the United States. Now, this is actually kind of similar to some of the other, uh, data sources I've shared with you, where they're bringing together data sources from different places, kind of like KidsCount was for kids, this way that the National Conference on Citizenship, these civic health indices are also doing the same thing, gathering data on voter [00:03:00] information, uh, from social surveys and other sources of information to provide a comprehensive set of data that looks at the broad, a broad number of indicators for civic health.
They're extraordinarily useful to help understand what's going on, uh, with respect to civic health in our communities. Now they have the national report, and I'm going to talk about some of those national trends, but they also have state level reports, um, certainly for Georgia and North Carolina, which I'll refer to today as well.
So those can be really helpful to get a sense of what does civic health look like in your community. Now, so for our, for today's podcast, what I'm going to do is share some data and some trends on the national level, and then share some examples from Georgia and North Carolina, and give you some examples of how you can use that information when you're thinking about how you want to design, implement and evaluate programs, uh, in the areas of, you know, mental health, social services, the kind of work that we do here at Common Good Data.
So let's get started with some national trends from [00:04:00] the, uh, Civic Health Index. Well, first, as I alluded to before, in 2020, The election turnout was the highest in the 21st century. Um, typically, uh, voter turnout is somewhere between 50 and 60 percent nationally, and it was as high as I think 65, 66 percent in 2020.
Um, this report, by the way, was released in 2021, right after that last national election, and there will probably be another one out in 2025 following this 2024 election. So stay tuned because we're likely to see another report on civic health, uh, released soon. So. Um, at the same time though, we had this really high voter turnout in 2020, but voter confidence has decreased quite a bit.
Um, and that people's confidence that their votes would be counted as intended, um, has dropped in recent elections. And there's a huge partisan split on that. Um, I think it was the number of, Uh, in a recent survey, the number of Republicans who, uh, indicated that they believe that their [00:05:00] results would be counted as intended following the 2020 election was as low as 30%.
Uh, so it's a really big challenge. Uh, this notion of voter confidence that our electoral systems, uh, will work as intended. Uh, other big trends, public trust. This is a huge one. That's been going on for a long time. Uh, not, not just recently, but over, over time, we've seen a decline in public trust in government, which was as high as 70 percent plus in the fifties down to hovering around 25 percent of Americans, you know, have real strong trust in the government that to act on their benefit and for them, right?
Now, why does that matter? Institutional trust really, really, really matters. And for those of you who work in a government agency who provide services to a community or programs to a community, you know that people might have a little bit of anxiety about walking into a government building, um, or reaching out.
Do they really trust that you as a, as a person working for [00:06:00] government is going to be able to work on their behalf? Not always, right? As a nonprofit, you might see that the same as well. The same trends that have been happening for government and decreases in trust have also been having for nonprofits and other institutions, things like Uh, trust in unions, trust in, uh, uh, businesses, trust in, um, religious organizations.
It's all been on the decline. So it's so important then for, especially for nonprofits and other community based organizations to recognize that trust is so important that without it, you really aren't going to be able to deliver the effective services, programs, interventions, activities that you want to accomplish.
So, uh, public trust is a big one, a big national trend. It's going in a direction that is towards not trusting, um, and it's something to be paying attention to in your practice. In addition, we're also seeing a trend, um, around increases, in partisanship. There's this perception, uh, uh, increasing that others who are not of the same political [00:07:00] orientation as us are of the enemy, who, um, are, are, are destroying the quote unquote American way of life.
And some data in this report show that the, how this partisanship has increased over time and is at a high, high level right now. Um, as many of you who've been following the news are probably well aware. Um, going back to other examples of trust, you know, not just trust in institutions, but there's also a decline in trust in just general trust.
Like, do you trust people in general? Which is a question that comes from the General Social Survey, which has been going on for decades and decades. Uh, there's a huge, um, decline in, well, an overall decline. Over the past couple of decades, but there's also more importantly, I think, um, a gigantic between, uh, participants, uh, Black, Latino, and other communities of color when compared to how white respondents answer that same question.
Uh, for nonprofits, it's so important because many nonprofits, [00:08:00] particularly those who work, Um, in settings that serve a diverse, uh, racially diverse population who work with Black and Latino residents, have a lot of work to do to build that trust, recognizing that many people who are individuals of color may have very good reasons, uh, to be not necessarily so willing to trust someone at the first time they've met before because of the historic ways in which those communities have been hurt and marginalized in the past.
So, In summary of some of these national trends, what are we seeing? What we're seeing is declines in trust in government and institutions, in non profits. We're seeing increases in partisanship. And what we're seeing is an increase in election participation, but also a decrease maybe in the trust of those elections.
So some of those are some of the big ones. There's a lot more data in this national report, though, that I encourage you to check out. So, When you are interested in looking, uh, this information up, you can go to ncoc. org to find the report directly or just go to [00:09:00] our podcast page and you'll see we'll have links for the national level reports, but also for some state level reports, which is a good segue because we're going to talk a little bit about state level indicators as well.
Now, I've looked at reports for two of them, one from Georgia and one from North Carolina. And, uh, some very interesting and I think revealing information about these two states came up. Now, what might challenge some of your thoughts too about Georgia and North Carolina, both considered swing states in the election, presidential election coming up for next year.
Um, and also not just at the presidential level, but also at the state level. In Georgia, we'll see that they're at national level, uh, averages on a number of things like, um, related to, to voting and participation and things. But what we see in Georgia are, that is that the state is below national averages on things like discussing politics with friends, donating to charities, volunteering, um, working with their neighbors to do something positive for their community.
Some of the indicators on these, Georgia ranks actually fairly low in comparing it. [00:10:00] in comparison to other state, um, other state levels, right, and national averages. But what I think was fascinating to see was that Georgia ranked last, 51st, uh, among the states on two indicators. One, which was frequently reading, watching, or listening to information.
about political, societal, or local issues. Um, and second, frequently talking with or spending time with neighbors, uh, down at 19. 7 percent compared to 26. 2 percent nationally. Uh, which was really, uh, interesting to see that, uh, you see this sense of, of, of, a declining sense of social connection among Georgia residents when compared to others, in the sense that they're not necessarily as engaged with local issues or political issues in their community, and not necessarily spending as much time with neighbors as other Americans.
So that was a big finding from the Georgia report, which again we'll have a link to on our podcast page, which you can find at commongooddata. com slash podcast. [00:11:00] In North Carolina, we see some similarities with Georgia, but also some differences. Um, there at national averages are doing better with things like relationships with family and friends and neighbors and doing favors for neighbors.
Perhaps, you know, following that, uh, stereotype we may have, maybe not a stereotype or maybe cultural understanding of the South as being very hospitable, uh, being very friendly, being a place where you can, uh, get to know family real well, right? Uh, but also North Carolina, uh, was lower than national averages on a number of other indicators.
Number one of them being voter turnout, which was interesting. Uh, and second also that North Carolina ranks last, 51st in voter registration. with only 60. 8 percent of, uh, eligible voters registered in the state compared to a national average, uh, about 10 points higher at 69. 7%. So some good questions there.
And for those of you who are working in North Carolina might be like, Hey, you know, what are some ways that we could do some things to address voter [00:12:00] registration issues, right? Um, and then also uh, for North Carolina participation in local politics. It ranks 47th nationally in attending public meetings and engaging public officials.
So those are kind of some of the state level indicators for Georgia and North Carolina. I encourage you to go check out the reports. The one from Georgia was put together by the, um, Georgia, um, uh, Family Connection Partnership along with a number of other collaborators. North Carolina also you can. You can see the different organizations that help put together the report.
They're really quite good, um, and I highly, highly recommend that you check them out. So, you might also, given all this data and information about the civic health in your community, and we're coming up on election season, so you might be thinking a little bit about civics and voting and other things and how that might be related to The communities that you serve in your organization.
And I'd encourage you all to think, you know, what can your organization do? Um, and what is it already doing that could be [00:13:00] used in a way to promote civic health? And I want to be clear about this. And you'll notice as I've approached this, uh, whole podcast episode in a nonpartisan way that you can do the same, uh, because many nonprofits and government agencies must be nonpartisan in their approach.
I'm hoping that I can try and model that for you. for you so you can see that it is possible to have conversations about politics and about civic life in a way that is nonpartisan. So what are some of those nonpartisan things that you can do? Well, first off is civic education programs, and I'm going to share these reports or these recommendations as they follow from the national report, but civics education programs can be a really great way to help improve the civic health of your community.
And Um, you know, you may be already doing some type of youth programming. Is there a way to integrate civics education into some of the work you're already doing with youth and families? Um, what can you do to help youth understand, um, their role as democratic citizens and engaging in voting, uh, and, and reaching out [00:14:00] to elected officials and recognizing that as their right responsibility and duty to participate in some of those civic programs.
Civic Activities. In addition, um, you might also think about service programs. So some organizations you might, what are some ways that you can engage volunteers? A lot of time we think of we need to engage volunteers so that we can have them accomplish something, but sometimes it actually might be more important to just think of let's engage volunteers because engaging volunteers in its own right is important because that volunteer is going to engage, or sorry, is going to understand.
and have some type of transformation themselves in their work with your organization that might help them to feel like they're having, developing a sense of meaning and purpose and joy, um, and engaging in their neighborhood or their, their community around them, uh, in a meaningful way. So what can you do to bring volunteers into your organization and have your organization the vehicle by which, [00:15:00] uh, members of your community can participate in civic life.
In addition, how do we improve access and trust? And why trust is just so, so, so critical. Um, have we even thought about measuring trust when you talk to the people that you are survey, maybe people who you are serving? Have you asked the question like that on one of your surveys? Do you, do you trust our organization or others around you?
It might be interesting to see what you find out. But when we know that, You know, trust in government and a lot of institutions is, you know, below 30%, uh, for, for many of them that if you even want to begin the work in any meaningful way, that, that trust building is so important. Uh, in addition, what can you do as an organization to help bolster other institutions in your community?
Like for example, your. Now, there's going to be some public investment needed to make sure that your community has and builds a public library, for example. But can you host events at a public library? [00:16:00] Can you bring people, uh, into conversations with some of those civic institutions in your community? You know, can you partner with a fraternal organization, uh, like, uh, you know, the Kiwanis or Lions or Rotary?
Can you, uh, have some of your Your constituency, your volunteers, your people that you serve come to a, uh, a council meeting, a city council meeting, or a county commission meeting, uh, to listen to what's going on or, or maybe even share public comments. These are the types of things that you can do as nonprofits to be a bridge for people, to help them understand how they might be able to have their voices heard.
Uh, expressed and shared and listened to in the civic sphere. And then lastly, as a recommendation, what can we do to think about media literacy? And this is so important for those of you who work with youth. You know, we think of, of so many different ways than programs and services that we need to provide for youth, but are we teaching youth how to responsibly, uh, [00:17:00] consume media information about public and civic life and how they can distinguish between what is What is good information and what is misinformation, uh, when they're out on the web and receiving that, that, that news and data and information that can be so, so critical.
So anyway, so five things you can do as a quick summary. Civic education programs, service opportunities, and volunteering. Improving Access and Trust, Bolstering Institutions, and then working on Media Literacy and Internet Literacy. So I hope these give you some ideas of things that you can think about in your non profit work.
How can you incorporate some of these principles into the work that you're doing? And then also that you can use some of this Civic Health Indicator data for the work that you're doing. Now, as I can think of so many different ways that if you're, you know, interested in putting together some programs on civic health, some of those five interventions that I just mentioned, how you might use some of the data here to help write a compelling needs statement, uh, to do a, uh, a community needs assessment, um, or even [00:18:00] to start evaluating the effectiveness of your work over time.
So I really think that, that these data are essential for every nonprofit and public, uh, institution to be reviewing when they're thinking about engaging the community, uh, for services and programs. So, I hope you enjoyed this episode on the Civic Health Index Indicators. As a reminder, check us out at www.
comongooddata. com slash podcasts where you can find out all kinds of more information about not just this source of data, but many others that you can use in your everyday practice. Hope you all have a good week and take care. You'll be listening to this perhaps during or after the election, so best of luck to you as you go out and vote and make your voices heard, and we'll see you on the other side of the 2024 election.
