A career in politics? Nah. Give me civil society.

In high school, I dreamed of a career in politics so that I could make a positive impact by writing legislation (or more likely, by allocating budget money to bureaucrats who create policy). But my interests have shifted more to for-profit jobs. Why the change? I derive less utility from pursuing political, ideological behavior. As Kalt and Zupan discuss in their paper, “pursuit of such a [civic] duty is a consumption activity that yields utility in the form of the warm glow of moral rectitude” (280). Looking at our grand challenges, increasing polarization, and worsening cynicism, I realized how difficult it would make a positive impact in politics right now. I no longer get as much of a warm glow from thinking about politics, and my opportunity costs have risen with the skills I have developed in college.

But all is not lost. I still care about civil society (and I know you do too). Michael Walzer defines “civil society” as the space of uncoerced human association and relational networks that form from our interactions with one another. Think about your place of worship, your neighborhood, the school you attend, the CIOs you are a part of, your workplace, etc. These are the places we choose to spend our time, where we take greater interest in the lives of one another, where our utility functions are more tied together, and where we overcome rational ignorance. The stakes here are lower than the political arena, and we have a greater ability to influence the local environment. It's where our interests reach farther than our egocentric goals and where we stay engaged with one another.

So long as we remain invested in the personal relationships we create with one another, we can all reap the “profits” as residual claimants in the shared endeavors that form civil society.