Education for civil society or democracy

Abstract

This paper is a scholarly debate on theses which equate the concepts of "civil society" and "democracy". The main objection put forward against the concept of education for civil society is its ideological nature. The paper analyses theoretical and empirical difficulties of the concept. In the first place, "civil society" concept is not identical to "democracy" concept. The author contests the claim that a good citizen ideal is a general ideal of modern society. A claim is put forward that there is no significant pedagogical or didactic difference between a civil education teacher and teachers of other subjects. The paper also points out some outstanding problems in school practice of civil education as a proof that the concept does not have a valid theoretical foundation. The call for civil education not to be limited to a single subject has been contested by the argument that a single vision of a desirable society can lead into doctrinal and ideological bigotry and not democratic pluralistic society. .

Keywords

• education
• civil society
• democracy
• teachers