Civics is a school subject about how a country is run and what citizens may do and must do — voting, laws, rights, the parts of government. In American English you “take civics”; the word looks plural but names one subject, like mathematics. British schools more often say citizenship. Though actually the class is not history (what happened) and not just politics (who is fighting for power): it is the working picture of public life, aimed at people who will live in that system. In Taiwan the closest school name is usually 公民 or 公民與社會, not a borrowed word “civics.” Outside school, civics can also mean that same set of ideas about being a citizen, but the everyday home of the word is the classroom.