My Research, Our Ignorance
An introduction to my dissertation… my subject, Forsyth County, NC
Winston-Salem, NC
Governing is hard. There are so many parts, people, policies, regulations, authorities, cultures, disasters looming, and the big ole world spinning around and spitting out problems waiting for someone to solve them…. It’s complicated. That is what we definitively understand. That governance is complex and dogged by constant metamorphoses.
The 2024 election could be called “odd, strange, annoying, and bombastic.” But in the fourth largest city in North Carolina, Winston-Salem, something stranger happened… a man completely unqualified for political office was elected. I know, “strange.”
Registered sex offender and felon, Edward Jones, handedly beat (63% of nearly 93,000 voters) Lei Zhang, who has “years of relevant, verifiable experience,” wrote Scott Sexton in the Winston-Salem Journal, for a seat on the Forsyth County Soil and Water Board of Supervisors. “One would think that working with the Yadkin Riverkeeper and the Piedmont Environmental Alliance were better qualifications than landing on the sex offender registry or claiming to have been shot three dozen times.”
We all make mistakes, and this is one. A huge one. However, instead of wallowing, let’s learn from this.
Yet, what are we supposed to learn? Where are we supposed to start? Easy, the basic elements of governance/governing.
Our Ignorance
Politics is an element to governance but does not encompass government overall. Politics is the creation of policies, laws, and regulations. Governance, however, is the enaction of those policies, laws, and regulations.
Not many contemplate the Soil and Water Conservation board daily, although it impacts us daily. Civic literacy is extremely low, and we are all affected by this. This is our problem, and the above election result illustrates that.
If you had to choose between two people to live with you, who would you have chosen from the above choices? That is a silly question, but it paints the picture that we must pay more attention to who runs our government (house). If a crisis occurs, where we need qualified people to evaluate and manage it, would you choose someone who has had hands-on experience? Or someone that decided to run “to tell the world about God”? Nothing wrong with God, but not sure how that pertains to river systems and soil maintenance.
Once you read deeper, it gets sillier.
My Research
We have an undergirded crisis in our midst. A crisis of basic understanding and knowledge of the entity running our daily lives: government.
A national survey conducted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce found an “alarming” lack of civic knowledge. The survey said more than 70% of Americans failed a basic literacy quiz with the three branches of government, the number of supreme court justices, and other functions of democracy as topics.
Other findings prompt:
Only 46% of respondents believe the U.S. is performing well on the vital need to understand our system of government—a gap of 49 percentage points from the 95% who call it important for the nation's success.
One in three did not know there are three branches of government.
More than half did not know the number of members in the House of Representatives.
“Put plainly, you can't fix what you don't understand,” Crow said. “Without reversing these deficiencies in understanding how our government works, we are risking the long-term health of our civic culture and democracy itself. That’s why we’re so committed to the National Civics Bee and other civics literacy programs."
In the workplace, however, only 19% see surmounting political divisions. This parallels the 75% of U.S. adults who view division within this country and government as major issues. Why are political divisions non-existent in the workplace whilst not in government?
Lastly, older Americans are more likely to understand the U.S. government (65 and older: 88% understand Supreme Court Appointments) compared to younger Americans (18 to 29: 62% understand Supreme Court Appointments). Although, when it comes to First Amendment rights and the tiebreaker for the Electoral College, younger adults score higher, per Pew Research Center.
My research aims to bridge this gap and help scores of Americans find their voice within our labyrinthian governmental system. Forsyth County is going to be my arena. This region has a diverse cadre of cultures, backgrounds, education, and industry warranting further examination.
Via the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA, 2021), I will use its lifespan to measure the communities’ understanding of complex bills and policies. I will interview and survey public officials and conduct focus groups with community members. By following the money and information, I will begin seeing who knows, who needs to know, and who knows too much….
I am going to Liberty University studying Public Administration (PhD)
Summary of my dissertation
I am conducting research in Forsyth County on public and government knowledge and their capacity to govern based on constraints or lacking information. I am using the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA, 2021) as the vehicle for this examination. I will test public knowledge of this bill and use it to analyze government capacity and effectiveness. I want to raise awareness of this research because I will be forming focus groups, surveys, and interviews for a qualitative analysis.
Click here for a link to my other works