Posted Sep 24, 2010, 8:00 am
Arizona lags the rest of the nation in measures of civic engagement ranging from voting to following the news to participating in community groups, according to a study released Thursday.
The report from the Center for the Future of Arizona said the problem of low voter turnout is especially acute in rural areas of the state.
Lattie Coor, the former Arizona State University president who serves as the group’s chairman and CEO, urged an audience of community leaders to take action and begin by talking to their neighbors.
“We hear these data and we don’t do much about it,” Coor said.
“Citizens have a responsibility to be engaged,” said Jack Jewett, president of the Flinn Foundation, one of the sponsors of the study. “We have to create an epidemic of civic leadership.”
Among the key findings:
Arizona voter turnout was 59.8 percent in 2008, falling short of the national average of 63.6 percent. In rural areas of the state, turnout was 47.3 percent, far below the national figure of 59.8 percent.
Arizonans had the lowest news consumption out of 13 states preparing similar civic health reports.
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Only about one out of three Arizonans belongs to a community organization that meets at least once a month, attends group meetings or serves as an officer or committee member.
One out of four Arizonans volunteered in 2009, slightly below the national average.
Courtney Klein, co-founder and senior adviser of New Global Citizens, a group committed to mobilizing young people, compared those rates to teenage rebellion and said they won’t be easy to change.
“It’s going to take strong leadership,” she said.
The report cited one bright spot for civic engagement: Tucson’s voter turnout exceeded both the state and national averages.
The findings built upon a 2009 Gallup poll that found only 10 percent of Arizonans said they believed elected officials represented their interests.
“If a manufacturing company, automobiles or computer chips had that kind of response, they’d be out of business,” Coor said.
While the Gallup poll focused on voter attitudes, the latest study delved into voter behaviors.
Coor said the group’s next step will be identifying five communities in which to launch programs boosting civic engagement. Those have yet to be identified.
A roundtable of leaders from around the state and from various sectors will propose and implement statewide goals, he said.
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2 comments on this story
Well. I thought the problem of civic involvement was an isolated phenomenon of my own community. It is alarming that the problem is statewide. I am not sure that the problem is apathy, so much as a sense of despair that one person’s voice can make any difference. This is a function, I believe, of an overwhelming fear of governmental authority and of the economically powerful.
People of all stripes are extremely willing to say that governmental figures or the economic elite have “got it right,” even when that position is contrary to their own best interests. To question these opinions, however, is to put oneself in opposition to them, and thus to threaten one’s own social and economic welfare. So the majority of Arizonans, apparently, choose to shield themselves from risk and ridicule, from appearing to be outside the pack, from not being a member of the team, and to thereby garner some support, some crumb, or at least not to be stepped on. That is not apathy; that is fear and despair.
We need to get over that.
It’s called “apathy.” We have an abundant supply in southern Arizona.