This dissertation project tries to answer the following question: How is collective political trust generated from individual political trust across federal and local levels? As a function of maintaining democracy, political trust has been examined since survey research started. The extant literature has discovered the mechanisms shaping trust in government but focuses only on trust in federal government. To grasp the entire picture of trust in government, it is important to analyze the interaction between trust in subnational and national governments. Specifically, I focus on a puzzle in the literature on a relationship between political trust and civic engagement. Despite the expectations of the extant theoretic work on social capital, there is little empirical evidence of a relationship between individual political trust and civic engagement. To solve this puzzle, I examine the effects of social trust on individual political trust not only at the federal level but also at the local level. The central argument of my dissertation is that the mechanisms shaping citizens' trust in each level of government are different. I argue that trust in local government largely stems from civic engagement while trust in federal government is mainly a function of citizens' perception of government performance. The dissertation starts by constructing a formal model and demonstrates that other information sources available to citizens prevent the government from manipulating information. This suggests that civic engagement works as another information source in local politics differently than in national politics. Following this model, I examine the effects of civic engagement on trust in national and local government. The first empirical chapter demonstrates the different effects of aggregate civic engagement on trust in the national and local governments using Bayesian vector autoregression models. The second empirical chapter examines the relationship between civic engagement and trust in the national and local government at the individual level using a multivariate multilevel model. This chapter also tries to explain the covariance between national and local political trust at the individual level. The results presented in the dissertation lead to the following conclusions: (1) Civic engagement does not affect political trust. (2) The movement of civic engagement affects the movement of trust in local government more strongly than trust in the federal government. (3) Community-level civic engagement affects individual's trust in local and national government. In sum, civic engagement collectively affects trust in local government more closely than trust in the federal government. By examining the relationship between political trust in each level of government and civic engagement using time-series and multivariate-multilevel models, we can learn how the hierarchical structure of democracy contributes to its stability. The electronic version of this dissertation is accessible from http://hdl.handle.net/1969.1/155079

More than a century ago, John Dewey challenged the education community to look to civic involvement for the betterment of both community and campus. Today, the challenge remains. In his landmark book, editor Thomas Ehrlich has collected essays from national leaders who have focused on civic responsibility and higher education. Imparting both philosophy and working examples, Ehrlich provides the inspiration for innovative new programs in this essential area of learning.

Asks and answers hard questions about the consequences of local government programs for democracy

Creating transparency between government and citizens through outreach and engagement initiatives is critical to promoting community development and is also an essential part of a democratic society. This can be achieved through a number of methods including public policy, urban development, artistic endeavors, and digital platforms. Civic Engagement and Politics: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications is a vital reference source that examines civic engagement practices in social, political, and non-political contexts. As the world is now undergoing a transformation, interdisciplinary collaboration, participation, community-based participatory research, partnerships, and co-creation have become more common than focused domains. Highlighting a range of topics such as social media and politics, civic activism, and public administration, this multi-volume book is geared toward government officials, leaders, practitioners, policymakers, academicians, and researchers interested in active citizen participation and politics.

Young adulthood - ages approximately 18 to 26 - is a critical period of development with long-lasting implications for a person's economic security, health and well-being. Young adults are key contributors to the nation's workforce and military services and, since many are parents, to the healthy development of the next generation. Although 'millennials' have received attention in the popular media in recent years, young adults are too rarely treated as a distinct population in policy, programs, and research. Instead, they are often grouped with adolescents or, more often, with all adults. Currently, the nation is experiencing economic restructuring, widening inequality, a rapidly rising ratio of older adults, and an increasingly diverse population. The possible transformative effects of these features make focus on young adults especially important. A systematic approach to understanding and responding to the unique circumstances and needs of today's young adults can help to pave the way to a more productive and equitable tomorrow for young adults in particular and our society at large. Investing in The Health and Well-Being of Young Adults describes what is meant by the term young adulthood, who young adults are, what they are doing, and what they need. This study recommends actions that nonprofit programs and federal, state, and local agencies can take to help young adults make a successful transition from adolescence to adulthood. According to this report, young adults should be considered as a separate group from adolescents and older adults. Investing in The Health and Well-Being of Young Adults makes the case that increased efforts to improve high school and college graduate rates and education and workforce development systems that are more closely tied to high-demand economic sectors will help this age group achieve greater opportunity and success. The report also discusses the health status of young adults and makes recommendations to develop evidence-based practices for young adults for medical and behavioral health, including preventions. What happens during the young adult years has profound implications for the rest of the life course, and the stability and progress of society at large depends on how any cohort of young adults fares as a whole. Investing in The Health and Well-Being of Young Adults will provide a roadmap to improving outcomes for this age group as they transition from adolescence to adulthood.