by Bob Gibson

Retiring U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter in May delivered a stirring call for better education of the American public about how government works.

The 19-year veteran of the court observed that surveys show large majorities of Americans cannot name the basic three branches of government: the executive, legislative and judicial branches.

Souter, in a speech at Georgetown University Law Center, warned that lack of knowledge about how government works threatens judicial independence and threatens the republic itself.

He reminded his audience that Benjamin Franklin, when asked after the Constitutional Convention of 1787 what type of government the new nation would have, replied: “A republic, if you can keep it.“

Souter sounded a note of pessimism based on the lack of civic knowledge.

“It can be lost, as he knew,“ he said of Franklin. “And the lesson we have been learning over the past couple of years is is that it is being lost. It is lost when it is not understood. If it is not understood, it will basically leech away.“

Souter said concern about attacks on judicial independence led to his understanding that “the real problem was the debasement, and in some places the disappearance, of knowledge of the structure and work of the government.“

The republic, he said, “can be lost, it is being lost, it is lost, if it is not understood.“

The concepts of separation of powers and of a fair and independent judiciary must be widely understood for the American republic to survive, the 69-year-old jurist warned.

In his home state of New Hampshire, to which he retired this month, he has just joined an independent curriculum committee to upgrade the teaching of civics from kindergarten through 12th grade.

Souter’s talk won a prolonged standing ovation from several hundred lawyers and judges from around the country, according to Tony Mauro of LegalTimes.

His words reverberate strongly across Virginia, where civics education has been allowed to wither.

So little government is taught between the 5th and 11th grades that many Virginians today cannot name three branches of government at the state or federal level, much less understand the separation of powers.

How lacking is knowledge among students in Virginia?

Ken Stroupe said the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, where he is chief of staff, found in a survey of high school and middle school students several years ago that:

• A third of students incorrectly thought that the Democratic Party is considered more conservative than the Republican Party.
• More than 30 percent did not know the name of Vice President Dick Cheney.
• More than 70 percent did not know the procedure by which a candidate is nominated to become president.
• Only 29 percent were able to name even one of Virginia’s two U.S. senators.
• Only 23 percent correctly knew that most bills introduced in Congress are rejected in committee and never reach the full House or Senate.
• More than half could not identify which branches of government are most susceptible to being influenced by lobbying and more than half said that did not know the purpose of a political action committee.

Perhaps the lack of civics education had something to do with the unsurprising finding that only 10 percent of those responding to the survey selected civics as their favorite subject.

Virginia’s evolving demographics alone help justify increasing civics offerings in schools as well as in after-school or other community settings because people should know their system of government. A state with an increasingly mobile and growing population has more people to familiarize with the basics of how government works.

Half of Virginia’s residents were born outside the state, including a full 10 percent of the population born in another nation. No matter where they were born or where they went to school, Virginians have a better chance of improving life in the commonwealth the better they understand the civic life of their state and nation.

Our system of representative democracy depends upon reasoned debate, negotiation and compromise. Success depends on the involvement of individuals who choose to participate in a political process that can bring about changes if enough people have the faith and understanding to make it work.

Civil and bipartisan policy discussions work best when good faith, respect for others and understanding of how the process should work are shared as broadly among citizens as possible.

Virginia and the nation have enough problems to solve without the misunderstanding and paralysis that can result when people lack the faith or knowledge to make government work.

Bob Gibson is executive director of the Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership at the University of Virginia. The opinions expressed here are his own and not necessarily those of the institute. He was appointed on July 1 to the Virginia Commission on Civics Education.