The Bill of Obligations

In his book The Bill of Obligations: The Ten Habits of Good Citizens, bestselling author and veteran diplomat Dr. Richard Haass makes the argument that for the United States to bridge its political divides, the role of the American citizen must be revised and expanded. Haass says to combat the growing apathy and anger among Americans across the political spectrum, the way forward is for citizens to commit to being more active, more informed, and more civil participants within American society. Without that commitment, American citizens cannot rediscover how to contribute to and reshape the country’s future.

Haass takes his analysis a step further, leaning on his decades of experience as a diplomat and policymaker in the Pentagon, State Department, and White House under four presidents, to reason that his habits of good citizens are essential in protecting American democracy. Democracy is not an end destination; it’s a never-ending pursuit that demands constant vigilance and ongoing commitment among informed citizens to fulfill its promise. “Democracy is more than procedures and laws. It is an ethical ideal that requires much of us if it is to succeed,” Princeton University professor Dr. Eddie S. Glaude Jr. wrote in praise of The Bill of Obligations. “We need a clear and thoughtful statement of our obligations to each other and to the country if this grand and fragile experiment in democracy is to survive.”

Read an excerpt where Haass lays out the argument for the ninth of his 10 obligations of good citizens, to support the teaching of civics.

Excerpt

The United States is particularly vulnerable to this failure to educate its citizens as to their heritage, as this is a country grounded not on a single religion or race or ethnicity (as are so many other countries) but on a set of ideas. These ideas are rooted in our history. Delineated in the Declaration of Independence, the new country made its case for breaking free from British rule as a necessary means to realizing the end of creating a society in which all men are created equal, endowed with certain unalienable rights, including life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. For its part, the government of the newly independent country would derive its mandate from the consent of the governed.

There are obvious major problems both with these words (the Declaration speaks of men, not people) and with the disconnect between the words and the American reality at the time, above all slavery, limits on rights for women, the treatment of the Indigenous peoples who were living here when the colonists arrived, and subsequent discrimination against multiple waves of immigrants. Nevertheless, the ideas represented a major step forward when they were articulated and remain relevant today. The notion that a person's fate is not determined by circumstances of birth over which he or she had no control is radical, as is the idea that government derives its legitimacy from those it governs, not from a hereditary family or a self-appointed few.

In a more perfect world, a book such as this would not be necessary because every American would get a grounding in civics – in the country's political structures and traditions along with what is owed to and expected of its citizens – in elementary school, in high school, and, if they went on, in college. It would be reinforced by parents, family, and friends along with community, religious, corporate, labor, and political leaders. Journalists would likewise play a constructive role.

[…]

A solid civics education would provide the basics as to the structure of government (the three federal branches, and state and local government, along with their scale and cost), how it operates (or is meant to operate) within and between the branches, and those terms and ideas fundamental to understanding American democracy, including democracy itself – representative versus direct democracy, republics, checks and balances, federalism, parties, impeachment, filibusters, gerrymandering, and so on. Both the rights and obligations of citizenship need highlighting. It should expose students to the basic texts of American democracy, including the Constitution, The Federalist Papers, pivotal Supreme Court decisions, major presidential speeches, and a handful of books that have stood the test of time. The curriculum should include the basics about American society and the American economy and how these facts have evolved over time. Teachers should emphasize the behaviors that democracy requires that parallel the obligations that constitute this book, i.e., the need for civility, the importance of compromise, the centrality of facts and where to find them.

[…]

Over time, it would be ideal if something of a consensus emerged over what should be taught in the way of civics. Think about it: it seems borderline crazy that there would be competing approaches taught in different states or educational institutions if the goal is to build a common understanding of citizenship and the rights and obligations associated with it. But this is where we are, and an attempt to install a single national curriculum for high schools and another for colleges would surely fail. It tells you something when a principal piece of legislation meant to address this problem, the Civics Secures Democracy Act of 2021, explicitly states, "Nothing in this Act shall be construed to authorize the Secretary of Education to prescribe a civics and history curriculum." But the time is right to have a debate over making civics required and to determine what might constitute a curriculum that would be both useful and broadly acceptable. It is difficult to imagine a more urgent and critical need if American democracy is to survive.

Richard Haass, The Bill of Obligations: The Ten Habits of Good Citizens (Penguin Random House, 2023), 136-137, 141, 143.