where people dislike the outcomes of those processes (Tyler and Huo 2002; also see Tyler 2006).
Trust affects whether people support policies aimed at reducing inequality (Hetherington 2005).
And it is argued that trust plays a role in sustaining our willingness to take risks on behalf of the
community (Smith 2003).
Obligation refers to the duties of citizenship, what we “owe” to our compatriots and to
our political institutions in exchange for the privileges and rights conferred by membership in the
political community. It is generally agreed that compliance with the law is where our obligations
start, though many Americans also feel that we have a duty to devote some of our time and
resources to the common good. Indeed, some argue that fulfilling such obligations is necessary in
order to protect the ability of a self-governing society to provide rights and privileges in the first
place. William Galston (2003), for instance, argues that a sense of obligation is essential in a
society that provides people with so many individual-level benefits, such as freedom, prosperity,
and stability. He writes that these benefits “do not fall like manna from heaven; they must be
produced, and renewed, by each generation…There remains an injunction to do one’s fair share
to uphold the institutions that help secure these advantages” (p. 179). Likewise, Wellman (2001)
writes that “the state cannot exist and perform its functions without the collective sacrifice of its
citizens” (p. 233; also see Epstein 1984; Miller 1995). In more practical terms, people with a
greater sense of civic duty are more likely to participate in politics and thus embody the ideal of
the active citizen (Campbell et al. 1960; Abramson, Silver, and Anderson 1987).
Concerns about whether immigrants develop a sense of obligation lead observers to
center their attention on identity choices and national attachment as essential ingredients. And it
is not just conservative or nativist observers who voice such concerns. Noah Pickus (1998), for
example, advocates a strong sense of national attachment and warns that “a shared national
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Convention