A reasonable argument could be made that in our form of democracy, civics knowledge is of little use to the average citizen. This is because that each of us has such an infinitesimal ‘vote’, and each person well educated in civics has their vote drowned out.
IMO the assumption that civics knowledge is only useful when voting, is itself a concerning failure of civics education. Above-average civics knowledge might reveal high-value opportunities such as advocacy, focussed policy submissions, talking to friends about particular policies, raising public awareness of important problems, etc.
Increasing the average level of civics knowledge is also (again, IMO) very valuable. The obvious benefits include that this disproportionately benefits good policymaking; beyond that I’d also expect volunteering to become both more common and more effective, along with improved coordination generally. Civics is basically the study of “how does our society coordinate”, after all!
IMO the assumption that civics knowledge is only useful when voting, is itself a concerning failure of civics education. Above-average civics knowledge might reveal high-value opportunities such as advocacy, focussed policy submissions, talking to friends about particular policies, raising public awareness of important problems, etc.
Increasing the average level of civics knowledge is also (again, IMO) very valuable. The obvious benefits include that this disproportionately benefits good policymaking; beyond that I’d also expect volunteering to become both more common and more effective, along with improved coordination generally. Civics is basically the study of “how does our society coordinate”, after all!
Note that being a volunteer super-agitator is also not being an average citizen...
In a sane society it would be a task that an average citizen understood and could take on if necessary.