An intervention to consider -- Civics education:

Wide-spread human suffering caused by the rise of authoritarianism is a neglected, existential threat

This threat is largely neglected by EA, at least partly due to the view that the problem is intractable.

This document presents the case that this threat should be urgently addressed and presents one neglected path that’s shown to have impact over time.

Authoritarian governments differentially produce human suffering

Extensive evidence supports the assertion that authoritarian regimes produce significantly higher rates of human suffering than Democracies.

Democracies have consistently lower rates of state violence against civilians, including torture, extrajudicial killings, and disappearances. The Political Terror Scale, maintained by researchers at the University of North Carolina, documents this systematically across countries and time periods. Democratic governments also have lower death rates from famines - this was documented extensively in Amartya Sen's influential work showing that no famine has occurred in a functioning democracy with a free press.

The Human Development Index (HDI) provides standardized measures of health, education, and income across countries. When controlling for other factors like natural resources and geographic location, democratic countries tend to score significantly higher. This indicates better fulfillment of fundamental human needs.

Conversely, Christian Welzel and Ronald Inglehart's research using World Values Survey data has demonstrated strong correlations between democratic institutions and various measures of human flourishing, including subjective wellbeing and self-reported freedom of choice.

Authoritarianism is on the rise, even in historically stable democracies

The threat to American democracy is real and present. American democracy is flagged as under “significant threat” according to the Authoritarian Threat Index and the U.S. no longer ranks among the world’s “full democracies” (i.e. Canada, Japan, and most of Western Europe) but among the “flawed democracies.”

(The Economist Democracy Index, 2023)

Rising authoritarianism in the United States is likely to have spillover effects in other counties, especially those with economic ties to the US

Multiple studies indicate that democratic backsliding creates spillover effects among countries with strong ties. See Waldner, David and Ellen Lust. “Unwelcome Change: Coming to Terms with Democratic Backsliding.” Annual Review of Political Science 21, (May 2018)

Also see Blauberger, M., & Sedelmeier, U. (2024). Sanctioning democratic backsliding in the European Union: transnational salience, negative intergovernmental spillover, and policy change. Journal of European Public Policy.

Analysis by Thomas Pepinsky at Cornell and others examines how economic ties between countries can amplify the effects of democratic backsliding. Their research suggests that countries with strong economic ties to the U.S. might be more likely to mirror its institutional changes, whether democratic or authoritarian.

Disengagement of citizens is an important underlying factor in the rise of authoritarianism

"When bad men combine, the good must associate;
else they will fail, one by one,
an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptable struggle."
- Edmund Burke, "Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents," 1770

Popular modern adaptation:=

"All that's required for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing."

“The way we understand––and trust––our democratic institutions, and even our fellow citizens, is alarmingly low. Toxic polarization is amplified by mis- and dis-information. It undercuts meaningful debate about the challenges we face. The impact on young Americans in particular, those who will inherit our nation, is cause for deep concern. Consider that a shocking 30% of young Americans think democracy is no longer essential. Our government feels too remote and too complex for them to get involved.”
The Danger of Deconsolidation: The Democratic Disconnect
Roberto Stefan Foa and Yascha Mounk, Journal of Democracy 3 (2016)

"What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make. Only if we understand can we care. Only if we care will we help."
- attributed to Jane Goodall

Stable Democracy is an essential enabler for the EV of long-term impact

Beyond the potential to grow altruistic participation, how is civics education important to the world's most important cause areas? The EV of most long-term programs – especially those based on science and/or public good – will certainly be realized only in the context of stable democracies. But in the United States and elsewhere, democracy is under threat.

Of course, global nuclear war would also devastate the EV of work on other risks. We believe that the severe underfunding of education that leads to informed, engaged citizens supports the differential value of redirecting relatively small levels of funding (single $Ms to $10Ms) to civic education can yield disproportionate benefit to the overall portfolio of issues more commonly prioritized by EA.

Civics education is an impactful, scalable, cost-effective and neglected path to more engaged citizens

Assertion: Those who understand democracy are more likely to care about it.
Those who care are more likely to act for democracy's preservation.
Therefore, to preserve democracy, we should teach it – in ways proven to create engagement.

Preserving democracy requires an educated, engaged citizenry. Involvement in high-quality civics education has been shown to help students discover their agency, equipping them with the knowledge and confidence required to engage.

Some EA organizations have considered work in the education space and deprioritized it – in at least some cases based on a perception of low EV relative to the investment required to have significant influence, even in the US.

We assert that countering authoritarianism requires the application of multiple levers. There is no single attack that will turn the tide. We present one path worth supporting. EA has historically invested to address issues that pose extreme, existential threats where tractable solutions aren’t apparent – work to curtail the risks of AI is a clear example.

“Effective civic education should always be a priority, but it has become especially urgent in light of the evidence that today’s young people are skeptical of democracy’s promise (cf. Westheimer in this volume). Unfortunately, civics is typically given lip service by policy makers but then shunted aside in favor of reading, math, and science.”

• What Social Scientists Have Learned About Civic Education: A Review of the Literature
  David E. Campbell, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indian

Impactful:

“Historically there has been a relative dearth of social science research into civic education—even in political science, a discipline that had civic education as one of its founding objectives. This is partly due to the mistaken impression that civics instruction has no effect on civic and political participation, a conclusion that was once conventional wisdom but has since been refuted. More and more evidence has accumulated that well-designed civic education—both formal and informal—has meaningful, long-lasting effects on the civic engagement of young people.”

• What Social Scientists Have Learned About Civic Education: A Review of the Literature
  David E. Campbell, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indian

The results of this study give us hope for the future of democracy. Relying on a cross-national experiment, we demonstrate that our original civic education treatments can increase citizens’ preference for democracy, increase their rejection of authoritarian alternatives, increase their willingness to vote for pro-democratic candidates, even if this is against their personal preferences, and increase their democratic knowledge. These various outcomes matter for the resilience of democracy, as “for democracy to endure, their leaders and citizens must internalize the spirit of democracy (Diamond 2008: 294).

• Neundorf, A., Öztürk, A., Finkel, S., & Ramírez, E. R. (2023, December 21).  (When) Does civic education work: Evidence from a cross-national online experiment.

Scalable:

America’s schools are the best opportunity for sustainable growth of civic engagement; they reach nearly 50 million diverse K-12 students each year. Seventy-five percent (75%) of students in the US attend public school. This is where young people learn how their system of government works (and should work), their place in it, and how they can participate.

Where else will young people learn not just how their system of government works (and should work) but, crucially, their place in it – and their ability to affect positive change within that system?

Through engagement with civics in school, evidence shows that students develop not only the knowledge to be involved citizens, but also the confidence that their involvement can make a meaningful difference.

Cost-effective and neglected:

There is a dramatic gap in funding for social studies / civics education. Relative to STEM, civics receives 1/100th the level of per student spending: $50 per student per year on STEM education while only $.05 per student per year on civics (Based on analysis of $2.9B in STEM funding via GAO vs. $3.5M in US Federal budget for 56.4M students per the National Center for Education Statistics).

The differential value of redirecting relatively small levels of funding to civics education may yield disproportionate benefits.

Taught well, Civics education increases knowledge about civics

“Historically there has been a relative dearth of social science research into civic education—even in political science, a discipline that had civic education as one of its founding objectives. This is partly due to the mistaken impression that civics instruction has no effect on civic and political participation, a conclusion that was once conventional wisdom but has since been refuted. More and more evidence has accumulated that well-designed civic education—both formal and informal—has meaningful, long-lasting effects on the civic engagement of young people.”
What Social Scientists Have Learned About Civic Education: A Review of the Literature
David E. Campbell, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana

For decades, scholars have argued that education causes greater support for civil liberties by increasing students' exposure to political knowledge and constitutional norms, such as due process and freedom of expression. Support for this claim comes exclusively from observational evidence, principally from cross-sectional surveys. This paper presents the first large-scale experimental test of this proposition. More than 1000 students in 59 high school classrooms were randomly assigned to an enhanced civics curriculum designed to promote awareness and understanding of constitutional rights and civil liberties. The results show that students in the enhanced curriculum classes displayed significantly more knowledge in this domain than students in conventional civics classes. However, we find no corresponding change in the treatment group's support for civil liberties, a finding that calls into question the hypothesis that knowledge and attitudes are causally connected."
Green, D. P., Aronow, P. M., Bergan, D. E., Greene, P., Paris, C., & Weinberger, B. I. (2011). Does knowledge of constitutional principles increase support for civil liberties? Results from a randomized field experiment. The Journal of Politics

Civics education increases civic engagement

(This is much harder to study and therefore harder to demonstrate.)

"Analysis of our national youth survey conducted after the 2012 election found that learning about voting in high school predicts actual voting once people reach age 18.

"The quality of high school civics classes (defined by the number of research-based pedagogical practices that the respondents recalled) marginally predicted electoral engagement and predicted informed voting in 2012.

"Having experienced service learning in high school predicted civic engagement in 2012 if the service-learning involved discussion of root causes."

All Together Now: Collaboration and Innovation for Youth Engagement: The Report of the Commission on Youth Voting and Civic Knowledge (Medford, MA: Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, 2013)

(The National Youth Survey conducted over 4,400 interviews)

"Relying on a cross-national experiment, we demonstrate that our original civic education treatments can increase citizens’ preference for democracy, increase their rejection of authoritarian alternatives, increase their willingness to vote for pro-democratic candidates, even if this is against their personal preferences, and increase their democratic knowledge. These various outcomes matter for the resilience of democracy, as 'for democracy to endure, their leaders and citizens must internalize the spirit of democracy (Diamond 2008: 294).'"

Neundorf, A., Öztürk, A., Finkel, S., & Ramírez, E. R. (2023, December 21).  (When) Does civic education work: Evidence from a cross-national online experiment.

Civics requirements most strongly impact the most neglected students

"We hypothesize that civics exams have the biggest effect in states where they are a requirement for high school graduation—the incentive hypothesis. We further hypothesize that civics requirements have the biggest effect on young people with less exposure to information about the U.S. political system at home, specifically Latinos and, especially, immigrants—the compensation hypothesis. We test these hypotheses with the 2006 and 2010 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) civics test administered to high school students, and with a large national survey of 18–24 year-olds. Across the two datasets, we find modest support for the incentive hypothesis and strong support for the compensation hypothesis."

Testing Civics: State-Level Civic Education Requirements and Political Knowledge

Cambridge University Press:  15 November 2016, David E. Campbell and Richard G. Niemi

The impacts of Civics education manifest over time

The impact of Civics education in primary and high school should be further studied to understand the effect on turnout and disposition of young voters.

In the US, turnout among young voters varies across elections. In the 2020 presidential race, 51.4% of ages 18 – 20 voted, a substantial factor in the result.

In contrast, the Youth Vote Survey conducted by the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) found that 42% of young voters cast ballots in the 2024 presidential election. Youth turnout in battleground states was higher – over 50%.

We argue that investment in Civics education has the potential to influence youth engagement, voting and disposition in the short term – and commitment to this cause over time is consistent with other causes viewed through the lens of long-termism.

Civics education more generally enables the EA mission

Where does an individual's "spark of altruism" come from? In conversations with people engaged in altruistic pursuits, I often find that it came from an early experience contributing to a cause, which drew them bit by bit into later commitment. These first experiences are often quite modest and local to a community. Many people were inspired by examples of social action they encountered in Social Studies and other civics education in school. Civics instruction also offered an understanding of how citizens can engage in government to create positive outcomes. Together, inspiration and understanding helped to build the confidence that their contributions can have substantive impact.

Civics education supports EA efforts on a range of other important problems

Civics education develops skills and capability that support progress against other pressing problems, as framed by “80,000 Hours:”

see https://80000hours.org/problem-profiles/

Specific opportunity:
iCivics is the most effective organization that enables impactful Civics education

The mission of iCivics is to enable the foundation of a thriving American democracy – an educated, engaged citizenry. We champion and enable equitable, non-partisan civic education so that the practice of democracy is learned by each new generation. We inspire life-long civic engagement by developing the highest quality and most engaging civics resources, offered free to teachers and students. Involvement in quality Civics education can give students the confidence to be engaged – including the knowledge of how to engage, and the belief that action can create impact.

Founded in 2009 by Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, iCivics is widely recognized as the leading force behind the expansion of high-impact civics education in the United States. Our current Board of Directors includes Justice Sonia Sotomayor and leading experts in the field of education, government and social action. iCivics has a full-time staff of over 70 professionals working to advance the cause. The organization is predominantly donor-funded.

Teachers are the force-multiplier in the iCivics mission. The organization provides a wide range of tools and support that enables teachers to deliver high-quality content and experiences to their students. Through 145,000 teachers actively using material from iCivics, the organization reaches nine million (9M) students each year. 95% of iCivics teachers note their students are demonstrably more engaged, more interested in politics and current events, more open to civil classroom conversations, and more knowledgeable about how our government works. These results flow from iCivics inquiry-based approach to education – students learn by asking questions and finding their own answers

iCivics also reaches students directly. Well Versed, iCivic’s animated music video series with Nickelodeon and ATTN:, was recently named the Youth & Family Gold Honoree at the 9th Annual Shorty Awards. Using iCivics games and simulations, students have engaged in over 150 million meaningful gameplays.

iCivics advocates for Civics education standards and funding at the Federal and State levels through CivxNow (civxnow.org). Established in 2018, CivxNow is a national cross-partisan coalition of over 350 influential national organizations advocating or more and better civic learning. On the state level, CivxNow supports 29 active state coalitions, and has had tremendous success implementing bi-partisan pro-civics policies at the state level with 38 best-practice policy wins in 24 states to-date. (Source: CixwNow)

Further update:

A fully vegan meal will be provided, catered by Pow Pow -- a popular DC venue :).

Please join us if you're interested and able!

Update: If you'd like to attend, please register here:

https://www.effectivealtruismdc.org/event/democracy-preservation-event-icivics

Walk-ins also welcome.

Thanks, Sean -- does indeed seem relevant. Will look deeper.