Finding Virtue’s Place: Examining America’s Civic Life

The revival of America’s civic life is one of the most popular proposals to cure the host of social and political ills that plague contemporary life. The thinking is that many of our social problems, including drug abuse, crime, divorce, and welfare dependency, are the products of an individualistic culture that no longer joins together to solve its collective problems. Individualism has devolved into selfishness and private rights take precedent over any collective good. As one analyst states, our once demanding virtues have turned into relativized values, and the loss of social demands allow people to act in ways destructive of the general welfare.

Denning examines in detail today’s civic virtue debate and the main proponents of this agenda. He argues that the conservative focus on moral behavior excludes other essential factors that contribute to social changes that affect America’s civic behavior. Instead of recalling some halcyon civic benchmark, he addresses today’s problems in the context of the social changes that contribute mixed results to America’s collective action. One fundamental change gives greater power to people-in the Jeffersonian tradition-to determine how they choose to govern themselves. Equally important, after a brief review of what happens in today’s local communities across the country, Denning challenges the diatribe that America lacks civic virtue. Moreover, as America struggles with growing economic inequality, its civic life mirrors the growing disparity in wealth. As suburbia displays some hallmarks of traditional civic activity, inner cities develop civic activities out of utter necessity to fend off the ills of crime, drugs, poverty, and economic desperation.