# Civic Literacy **Domain:** American Literacy / Institutions and Public Life **System:** [[wiki/American Ethos|American Ethos]] ## Definition Civic Literacy is the ability to read institutions, media, signals, constitutional roles, public conduct, power, and trust as working systems. It is fluency for participation rather than self-protection from the apparatus. A civically literate person understands how to enter, improve, staff, question, and serve the institutions that organize common life. Good faith becomes effective when joined to knowledge of how the system actually moves. ## Place in the American System Civic Literacy is developed from [[american/American Ethos - Civic Literacy|American Ethos - Civic Literacy]] and belongs to [[collections/American|the American Collection]]. Its role is to keep one stable concept available across doctrine, character, comportment, material culture, intelligence participation, and alliance work without collapsing those levels into one another. ## Relationships [[wiki/Civic Intelligence Literacy|Civic Intelligence Literacy]] · [[wiki/American Intelligence Citizenship|American Intelligence Citizenship]] · [[wiki/Civic Legibility|Civic Legibility]] ## Sources / Provenance The governing source is [[american/American Ethos - Civic Literacy|American Ethos - Civic Literacy]]; the wider architecture is routed through [[wiki/American System|American System]].