A lot of good people – especially good, young people – are reluctant to engage with civics because they don’t like politics. They may even think that politics is kind of . . . nasty and vulgar.

They are right. Politics is nasty and vulgar. A good citizen may – and probably should – despise politics.

The thing is, politics only describes one aspect of civic engagement. Using the one word for all kinds of engagement confuses people and downplays the importance of other, nobler types of involvement. A good citizen can stay away from politics, but should not shirk his or her obligations for public or community service.

Here are three terms describing different aspects of civic engagement. These definitions are not from any dictionary, and they are not widely agreed on. And that’s the problem. If we are going to discuss what is good and what is bad, we need to have distinct words and we need to understand what each other are saying when we use a word. Using the three separate words can help citizens understand the good from the bad, and the bad from the ugly.

Politics

Politics is the process of gaining power for yourself so you can do favors for yourself and your friends. Politics is driven by money and ego. Politics is about winning, and doing whatever it takes to win. A decent person might, perhaps, engage in politics. The winner of a political contest might, perhaps, use the power of the office to do good. They might wash the dirt of the campaign off their hands.

But politics itself does not (and cannot) serve any common good or any moral principle. It only serves to determine winners and losers in a contest of ego and popularity. Politics is not even necessary for democracy. The ancient Greek democracy of Athens chose leaders by random because the idea of campaigning for votes seems vulgar to them. The American founders designed a system of voting but did not envision aggressive political campaigning. They expected candidates to wait to be nominated, and to accept office when invited.

But in the modern day, politics is noisy, expensive and attention grabbing. If you’ve ever been annoyed by an excess of campaign messaging leading up to an election — that is politics. If citizens have a bad opinion of politics, it is probably because they have seen how politicians behave. There is a famous photograph from 1940, when the town of Elwood, Indiana turned out to cheer for local boy Wendell Wilkie.

Wilkie lost to Franklin D. Roosevelt in that election. Wilkie was a decent, thoughtful public servant. But his politics was noisy, dusty, frenetic, confused, mass-enthusiastic political craziness.

Another glimpse of the goofiness of politics appears in the following video from a Republican Party dinner in Ohio in 2010. The speaker, a minor local politician named Phil Davison, whips himself into a frenzy trying to convince local movers and shakers to nominate him for a minor office.

Davison’s performance was intended to get power for himself, by persuading other people to use their power to benefit him. Davison lost, so there is no knowing whether he’d have done a good job as treasurer of Stark County, Ohio. But we know for sure that the speech was stupidity at its most political, and politics at its most stupid.

Governance

Governance is the work of elected officials and the staff of local, state or national agencies. Governance is necessary for life in a modern nation. Everyone benefits from it. I have nothing bad to say about governance, even though sometimes government officials let politics influence their work.

My sister is executive assistant to the county commissioners of an Indiana county. She’s also a voluntary member of the county’s library board. She’s involved in governance. My brother-in-law is a member of a regional workforce development committee in Illinois. He’s in governance, too. My sister gets paid for her work in the commissioners office, but she gets no power from it. It is real public service.

Governance is about the serious work to keeping public services going. It is not glamorous, but it must be done.

Public or Community Service

Public service is anything that anyone does to help their community. Governance is one form of public service, but you don’t have to be involved in government to do public service. Volunteering to pick up trash in a vacant lot or along a highway is public service. Coaching a Little League baseball team is public service. Sitting on a local parks or library committee is public service. Helping with voter registration or volunteering on election day is public service.

Community service is noble and good. As much as politics is gross and repellent, community service is necessary and edifying. People who feel repelled by politics may find a role for themselves in community service. American civic life consists of some very noble actions and some quite vulgar ones. Citizens mustn’t be so repelled by the vulgarity of politics that they refuse to engage in the noble act of community service.