ABSTRACT
Citizen participation related to public safety is found at all governmental levels, although the vast amount of participation takes place at the community level. This was especially the case in 1831, when Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859), a French nobleman, came to the United States (Figure 6.1). Ostensibly, he was commissioned to investigate the U.S. penitentiary system. Before his trip, he had been appointed a judge-auditor at the tribunal of Versailles. He traveled to the United States with his friend and fellow judge, Gustave de Beaumont. Over a nine-month period he studied the methods of local, state, and national governments as well as the everyday activities of the American people. His multivolume, Democracy in America, is considered to be a masterpiece concerning the nature of American democracy prior to the Civil War. He discovered, with a degree of amazement, the numerous and varied types of “associations” formed to help others and for the general good of the community. During the early days of our nation, volunteerism was a trait born of necessity because community service was rooted in westward expansion. “There was no government to solve problems on the frontier, no rich people to invest in infrastructure. If settlers wanted a church or a barn or a town they had to join hands and build one” (Kadlec 2013).
