presidential election – characterized by unusually high levels of competition and
aggressive get-out-the-vote efforts – is not likely to ameliorate this long term trend in
youth political participation. Educators and policy makers across the country have come
to the conclusion that intervention through formal civic education is necessary to address
their concerns (Carnegie Corporation of New York & CIRCLE, 2003; Galston, 2003).
Spurred on by works such as Educating Citizens (Colby, Ehrlich, Beaumont & Stephens,
2003) and Civic Responsibility in Higher Education (Ehrlich, 2000), many colleges and
universities have reinvigorated their mission of grooming students for civic leadership
within local, state and national communities. Not surprisingly, most of the skills
identified as essential to such efforts are communication skills such as cooperation,
persuasion, negotiation and compromise. As the Colby, et al. note:
Fully effective citizenship requires a well-developed capacity for effective
communication including, moral and political discourse; skills in political
participation; the capacity to work effectively with people, including those
who are very different from oneself; and the ability to organize other people
for action. (p. 100)
Hence Communication research on how to develop deliberative communication skills and
on how to persuade citizens to adopt socially-desirable behavior may serve as a resource
Convention