As a conscientious participant in any community, it is important to know what that community expects. By entering into Locke's Social Contract with that community, those expectations become the responsibility of the citizen, and should wants and desires conflict with those of the greater community, it is again the responsibility of the citizen to overcome, adapt, or relocate. Therefore, it is incredibly important to understand what exactly your community expects from you.
Unfortunately, there is no short answer to this vital query, as that which is required is more of a conceptual state of being. Generally speaking, it is not so much the actions of the public that are important, rather it is the opinions and values they share that end up dictating laws and practices. With these shared opinions, the community as a whole becomes much more free to act however they like, due to that simple prerequisite 'liking' of those same things.
So, I've raked through the muck of the internet to find some guidance in the matter, and faced with abundant success, I have decided to share some of the articles I discovered. Firstly, I heavily recommend Professor Will Kymlicka's beautiful essay on the subject titled Responsible Citizenship. The work is a bit lengthy (80p) and is Canadian, thus not directly applicable to our situation here in the States, but is a wonderful read with many characteristics that fit quite well with the more liberal portion of our ideologies. Another option, much lighter and more explicitly addressing U.S. citizens, is an article called The Responsibility of Citizens that I found on the National Center for Constitutional Studies website. This article is more bluntly written, but is easy to understand and more relevant to us.
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