Agent of Democracy - Society for College and University Planning

Should Higher Education Have a
Civic Mission? Historical Reflections
R. Claire Snyder
What does it mean to say that higher education should have
a civic mission? The term civic is defined as “of or relating to a
citizen, a city, citizenship, or community affairs.” The term citizen
is not just another name for an individual; citizen is a membership
category that connects the individual to a self-governing community,
a city, a republic. The term originated within the democratic
tradition of civic republicanism, which dates back to ancient Greece
and Rome, to refer not to all who live in a community but specifically
to those responsible for public affairs. While contemporary
liberal democracy—dedicated to protecting the rights, liberties,
and interests of individuals—uses the term citizen, it has vacated
the category of its historic meaning, responsibility for civic participation.
Consequently, the liberal citizen has individual rights but
few duties.
To answer the question of whether higher education should
have a civic mission requires us to answer the question behind
the question: what does citizenship mean? In other words, the
theory of democracy people implicitly or explicitly assume directly
affects their vision of citizenship and so also shapes their view
of higher education’s mission. Today liberal democracy with its
emphasis on individualism appears to be the dominant vision of
democracy in America. But that was not always the case. In the
early years of American history, the civic republican vision of
democracy played an important role, which is why the United
States was founded as a republic. Not reducible to representative
government, a republic is a sovereign political community of equal
citizens who work together to govern themselves for the common
good. Civic republican political theorists ground their belief in
popular sovereignty on the Roman principle that “what affects
all must be decided by all.” Thus, they believe that citizens must
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