According to Jill Blair and Malka Kopell in a 2015 Aspen report, “civic infrastructure” includes the “system of organizations and relationships — with the explicit goal of maximizing public participation and agency in service of better public problem-solving.” In today’s hyperpolarized environment, revitalized civic infrastructure could open pathways for meaningful engagement with neighbors and institutions and create opportunities for a shared sense of collective good and agency to bridge our divides.
We are living with the consequences of broken or nonexistent civic infrastructure and the erosion of the “common knowledge” that a functioning democracy requires. Two-thirds of Americans would not pass the U.S. citizenship exam; 75 percent cannot name all three branches of government, 20 percent can’t even name one; most Americans have no idea how state government works, less than 20 percent can name their state rep.