I was a Boy Scout. Moreso than anything else, it instilled a sense of honor to participation. There’s not many ways that a citizen is allowed to participate in government affairs.
You have financial participation with taxes of course, but that’s worldwide for all time, so nothing special there. There’s always laws, so if you break them, you participate in government in a different way, but that’s also worldwide for all time, so nothing special there.
But what *is* special is:
a) voting
b) jury duty
And…. as far as a citizen’s expectations to participate in government affairs… that’s really about it.
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There were 3 troops in a 1 sq mile town in New Jersey. One folded while I was still a cub scout. That left two. The tiny one I was in, hosted at the Methodist church, and the GIGANTIC one hosted at the Catholic church. [it was a two church town].
Anyway, I was in the small troop. Small was good. It was SO small, that I was the last scout standing at the age of 16 and they shut it down after that. Still, at 14, I was Senior Patrol Leader heading about 15 10-12 yr olds and with the lazy pair of scoutmasters we had then, I got to run the show. It was a good year.
But I started getting lazy the next year, membership started dropping as they moved onto the more active troop that actually did things (the lazy scoutmasters were replaced with one that did nothing) and the troop I was in’s time was coming to an end.
Still, it was fond memories for me. I was lucky.