Civic Engagement Simulator

Lone Star College‐Tomball, in its second year of a three-years subgrant from Learn and Serve America through the Community College National Center for Community Engagement, has as its central project to develop a computer simulation intended as a device for college and high school faculty to instruct students on the workings of the political process. Users of the simulator will attempt to get a fictional political candidate elected to state office, negotiating the myriad campaign events and rituals. One of the components of the ASSETS Project as it pertains to this year’s participation relates to historically low levels of political efficacy and participation among young adult Americans. Introductory American Government and Politics courses do focus on low voter turnout rates among young adults, but they also focus on other aspects of citizen participation. Those "other" areas amount to examining broad based venues of citizen engagement within the political process. These include opportunities for social capital building that incorporate all citizens. The idea is, as Hudson (1995) points out, to generate a functional democratic process comprised of citizens with the opportunity to participate and who perceive it in their best interests to participate. This functional process is not just the responsibility of the government. Along the way the ultimate goal is for the citizens to have control of what government does as they engage each other. A criterion for generating a more democratic process for Hudson is citizen deliberation. Without deliberation the process is less transparent and less democratic simply as it becomes more exclusionary. It’s simple: more engaged citizens, more deliberation, more control of government, and more democracy.