The Expanding Role of Civic Organizations

by Mark S. Matthews"

OCTAL scientists fiam the days of our beginnings have characterized as S uniquely American our tendency to meet our civic problems through voluntary association-independent of official initiative or direction.

Alexis de Tocqueville marveled at the inclusiveness of the concern of these voluntary associations. Telling his countrymen of the amazingly vigorous new state, he declared ". . . in the United States associations are established to promote public order, commerce, industry, morality and religion, for there is no end which the human will, seconded by the collective exertions of indi- viduals, despairs of attaining."

Historians, strangely enough, have given little emphasis to the continuing role played by these groups in the development of a civilization with stan- dards of living and personal freedom unmatched throughout the world. And space here does not permit a detailed review of the growth of that role to the present time. The significant fact is that the movement of cooperative volun- tarism in America has kept pace with the whirlwind expansion of the United States into a great industrial society.

As new problems of community living were created by technological ad- vances, civic organizations marshalled citizen resources to meet them. Two world wars demonstrated the capacity of civilian Americans to cooperate. The lessons of war have been applied to peacetime living. Today there is no area of community concern in which we do not find organizations of laymen effectively engaged. I t is no exaggeration to say that there is not an individual in the United States whose life has not been influenced by such activity.

The expansion of the role of civic organizations paralleled the expansion of the role of the citizen himself. When Tocqueville visited us in 1830, com- munities were rural in character-life and citizenship relatively simple. A man could grasp his problems and proceed to do something about them with the help of his neighbors. When the machinery of government was lacking or proved inadequate, he and his fellows in free association supplied the lack or strengthened their local government. He was a good citizen who observed the law, paid his taxes, and periodically voted.

The first great expansion of the role of civic organizations came when men and women began to find their own individual resources inadequate to meet their civic responsibilities-when a technological age seemed to make an individual powerless to act hopefully in the face of difficult problems, problems almost impossible to understand. , . .

Today the expansion of the concept of citizenship continues beyond a

* Mark S. Matthcws is an attorney, and author of Guide to Community Action. This

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article originally appeared in The American Jozarnal of Economics and Sociology.

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sense of responsibility for lawful living, paying taxes, and voting. SO too does the role played by civic organizations in making such an expanded citizenship concept a reality.

In what directions is this expansion of the role of civic organizations moving? Certainly in the direction of providing education in civic affairs for millions of Americans. Through civic organizations men and women are becoming aware of persisting, compelling problems in areas such as public education, planning, traffic control, security, They are getting infor- mation, developing attitudes and understanding, acquiring skills essential for diagnosing and acting upon these problems.

The trend is also toward the kind of civic program concerned with basic, fundamental principles. In other days civic organization action was too fre- quently characterized by immediate objectives; it was too narrowly conceived.

The role of the civic organization is expanding, too, in the direction of a more inclusive concern for community living, Interest in special areas such as education, health, and municipal administration has taken on perspective. Each of the major areas is being given a proper relation to others. Civic activities are losing the almost competitive quality they once had. Civic-effort “fragmentation” accompanying a multiplicity of civic organizations and a tremendous swelling of memberships is giving way to a more careful, com- munity-wide cooperation.

Another direction of expansion of the role of civic organizations is toward an increasing awareness that great national objectives--such as safer and more healthful living, an adequate public school system, the utilization of the potential productivity of all citizens, and better international understand- ing-can be realized only through the efforts of voluntary associations . . . .

Many municipal functions and services now regarded as “standard” were once the “community service” projects of volunteer groups. Civic organi- zations today continue to move into a vast area of responsibility for better community living in which there is no sharp line between the role of public and private agency. They are making possible a degree of self-government without precedent-a self-government covering segments of living so varied and complex that no formal organization of government functions and ser- vices could be wholly adequate. In these areas civic organizations explore, experiment, pioneer, and carry on programs of public education that are having pronounced effects upon the quality of American living.

Civic organizations are becoming sensitive to the fact that they do have important, long lasting effects upon municipal policy and administration and that their relatively consistent, continuing programs do furnish a stability sometimes jeopardized by the vacillations and abrupt shifts of politics. In fields such as education, recreation, and planning they are represented on advisory bodies that sometimes have quasi-legal relation to , . . government.

Through their expanding interest in municipal government civic organi- zations are making possible a measurement of citizen attitudes. They repre- sent the thinking and the feeling of the many publics with which officialdom

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must deal. They provide a sounding board for public policy. Few boards of education, for example, would dare introduce drastic changes in school pro- grams without first determining the thinking and feeling of local Parent- Teacher Associations. Few planning officials would care to act without taking the pulse of public opinion through many civic associations.

Of far-reaching importance is the trend toward an alliance of profession- alism and voluntarism in service to the community. There was a time when the adoption of professional staffs and direction in fields such as social ser- vice seemed to suggest the end of the volunteer worker. This threat to active citizenship participation never materialized, Professional knowledge and skill are giving new effectiveness to lay participation. Numerous undramatic tasks take on new meanings with the worker’s new awareness of the importance of what he is doing. With new appreciations have come a greater sense of responsibility.

Principles and techniques of training have been formulated. Standards of volunteer service have been developed. Research conclusions and professional know-how, developed by great national associations, are being funneled into the self-help effort towns and cities are making. An alliance of professional and lay workers is raising the level of community expectancy. I t is resulting in the general community acceptance of higher and higher values.

Increasing recognition is being given to the developing role of the civic organization as a training ground for civic leadership. I t is axiomatic that leadership in a democracy emerges from the free association of men and women with common ideals and purposes. Leaders do not appear full-fledged in a community, state, or nation. They are individuals who have grown to leadership stature through the practice of leadership in cooperative efforts to solve concrete, immediate, community problems.

Attesting to the effectiveness of such training is the fact that both business and industry, in self interest, give weight to volunteer-group membership when they employ executive and supervisory personnel. The Armed Forces find in the civic group membership background of officer candidates evidence of leadership ability.

The programs of civic organizations not only are producing effective lay citizens, they are the proving grounds for officialdom. I t is through these associations that men and women of ability become aware of the problems of community living. Here they develop those human relations appreciations and skills so necessary for successful public service. An important expansion in the role of such groups is the adoption of conscious, planned programs to provide opportunities for such training. Few public figures today-local, state, or national-have not had this community service background.

The role of civic organizations in America, the memberships of which interlock and cross all economic, social, and other lines, presents the world with a kind of paradox. I t a t the same time is making possible the greatest individualism and the most effective citizen group action the world has ever known.