Vermont's civic culture is tops in the country, according to research by an Iowa State political scientist. Iowa's civic culture ranks 11th. Civic citizens trust each other and they are tolerant of a wide range of ideas and life-styles. They pay attention to public issues and get involved in commu-nity affairs. They treat each other as equals and they join a variety of social, political and religious groups.
Civic citizens care about one another and the communities they live in.
To determine a state's civic culture, Rice used a methodology created by a Harvard professor to measure civic culture in Italy. The statistics were combined mathematically to produce the civic culture ratings. The researchers also found that, in general, states with strong civic cultures enjoyed better government performance.