The Limits of Political Efficacy: Educating Citizens for a Democratic Society

J ustin is not alone. In a recent study of high school seniors from California, for example, only 28% agreed that “I think people in government care about what people like me and my family need” ~Kahne and Middaugh 2005!. Related findings are common. A survey by the National Association of Secretaries of State, for example, revealed that twothirds of all young people agreed that “our generation has an important voice, but no one seems to hear it.” Moreover, those youth who were least trusting were also the least likely to vote, to believe that government can affect their lives, or to pay attention to politics ~National Association of Secretaries of State 1999!. These findings, combined with numerous other indicators that show low and in many cases declining civic and political participation, indicate that forms of engagement required for a participatory democracy to thrive are in need of attention ~Macedo et al. 2005!. In response to such concerns, educators and policy makers have stepped up efforts to promote young people’s participation in political and civic affairs. A common strategy for doing so has been through service learning curriculum and community service activities that provide youth with readily-accessible opportunities to make a difference in their communities: elementary school students have cleaned up local parks; middle and high school students have brought food baskets to homeless shelters and volunteered in local hospitals, old-age homes, and recycling centers; college students have wet their civic feet by organizing and participating in a host of community projects to assist those in need. Indeed, unlike many measures of formal political engagement, rates of volunteerism among young people have risen dramatically over the past decade ~Putnam 2000!. Those hoping to foster civic and political engagement have often been supportive of these developments, believing that they will help young people recognize the value of giving back, will teach important skills, and will build their commitment to further engagement. One principal way this will happen, the argument goes, is by developing students’ sense of efficacy. Eyler and Giles ~1999!, for example, argue that a sense of efficacy is a key building block for civic commitment. Indeed, many educators believe that if we shore up young people’s sense of efficacy ~their confidence that they can make a difference!, then their levels of civic and political engagement will rise. In this article, we discuss some surprising findings from our study of 10 nationally recognized programs that engaged youth in community-based experiences and aimed to develop democratic values. Many, but not all, of these initiatives employed service learning activities. We should note at the outset that our study was not intended to measure the relationship between efficacy and civic and political engagement. However, data from the two-and-a-half year study led us to question the common assertion that efficacious community experiences will necessarily prepare youth for participation in the democratic life of the community. The observations we detail below do not constitute a definitive proposition about the relationship between efficacy and rates of civic and political engagement. Rather, we offer a cautionary tale of some potential shortcomings of programs that emphasize efficacy and, likewise, highlight some possible value to experiences where students encounter roadblocks rather than success. We conclude by describing some ways educators might respond to some of the limits of efficacy when preparing citizens for life in a democratic society.