In part, this effort depend on building a healthy and active set of "mediating institutions" that simultaneously give focus to desires and interests of citizen and provide experiences that will better prepare those citizens for action in the larger political system. As Putnam (1995) argues, America's democratic tradition depend on the existence of engaged citizens, active in all sorts of groups, associations, and governmental units. Collectively, these small groups constitute a "civil society" in which people need to work out their personal interest in the context of community concern. Only here can citizens engage one another in the kind of personal dialogue and deliberation that is the essence of community building and of democracy itself. Again, as king and Stivers (1998) point out, government can play an important and critical role in creating, facilitating, and supporting these connections between citizens and their communities