Pick up one on civic engagment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Pick up one on civic engagment - Essay Example Democracy is a political unit where all its members have the mandate to manage it. A democracy is however controlled by a leader who has the majority backing of the people. Citizenship on the other hand refers to the person who has an entitlement to the rights and privileges of the society that he lives in as a freeman. According to Ricky van Oers (2010), citizenship involves a person living in a state and swearing his allegiance to it and therefore has an entitlement to its protection. Therefore, citizenship, democracy and civic engagement have similar roles in the progress of a society. Civic engagement therefore refers to the qualitative development of the society by use of both political means and non-political means (Oers, Ersboll, & Kostakopoulou, 2010 ). This paper seeks to make integration between leadership and democracy by first expounding on the roles of the civic engagement to the society’s economic strength and then analyze the effects of lack of democracy to the economy of a society. Role of civic engagement to the local economy The society is made up of the involvement of all the sociological perspectives which are the family, the school, the church and the media (Ehrlich, 2000). The importance of the society involvement to the development thereof cannot be under estimated. The first role of civic engagement is the promotion of peace and harmonious living among the people of a society. A civil society that is based on the strength of all the citizens in promoting its activities stands to remain economically viable. The peace has to exist between the citizens and the government depending on the governance method used. The society is usually connected to the government by the civil society organizations regardless of the method of ruler ship in place. In situations where the government is facing a social strife, the vulnerability of the society will make the existence of personal engagement in economic activities that promote the wellbeing o f the society to cease. Researchers have shown that the existence of a public sector that is sound is largely dependent on the society’s strong homogenous engagement in the open public realm. Much example can be drawn from the rich Congolese society in central Africa where there has never been harmonious co-existence of a strong society. This has led to continuous lack of peace in the central government and therefore unable to develop effectively. The second role of civic engagement is to help strike a balance between accountability by the government and the decision the society makes on leadership. The way to democracy, autocracy, authoritarianism or laissez faire type of leadership will largely depend on the type and level of civic engagement that the society decides to uphold. Most government crises are as a result of the continuous contradiction existing between the society and the government itself. In most cases, the society will to a large extend decide the type of lea dership it requires to put in place the development of the local economy. Therefore, the choice of a sound leader is not based on the loyalty to the ruling regime but substantially on the voice of the society. A member of the society who holds sound citizenship criterion loves his native land and acts to protect the legitimacy of the same place. Citizens have social accountability this accountability is directed towards the society. From the sociological philosophy, it is said that building a family is building