The essay of Suzanne Mettler, Soldiers to citizens, was really interesting because it leads us to take a step back regarding the success of the GI Bill.
On the one hand, I agree with the fact that the help of the state for veterans with the GI Bill influenced the citizens towards a more active form of participatory citizenship. Suzanne Mettler says that one of the main reasons why the GI bill increased the participation of veterans in democracy is because the program dealt with the education that clearly leads to more civic competence skills.
On the other hand, I don't think that we can generalize the benefits of the GI Bill to all social programs initiated by the government. It is interesting to compare the situation of US and France, a country where the government is involved in several social programs, providing free health care, free education -both school and college- financial help for families and unemployment benefits. The French don't participate in democracy more than the Americans do, and I don't think that they feel more involved in the society than in the U.S.
Nevertheless, I also hardly agree with the point made by the author about the fact that the government programs influence the participation of citizens for ill or for good. One of the reasons why the GI Bill lead to more involvement is because it was seen as really positive as it was fair and efficient. In France, the intervention of the government influences for ill the citizens, because most of the time they only participate with huge strikes every time they are not satisfied by the government.
As a conclusion, I think that the GI Bill's success in a more active form of citizen participation was exceptional, and that it was due to the context of the postwar period. For me, we can't generalize this success to all the programs of the government.
No comments:
Post a Comment