From Education to Democracy?

From Education to Democracy?

The conventional wisdom, since at least the writings of John Dewey (1916), views high levels of educational attainment as a prerequisite for democracy. Education is argued to promote democracy both because it enables a “culture of democracy” to develop and because it leads to greater prosperity, which is also thought to cause political development. The most celebrated version of this argument i...

Can Confucianism Add Value to Democracy Education?

Democracy essentially means ‘people ruling themselves’ or ‘self-rule’. In the light of this, democracy education should aim at nurturing citizens well-suited to live in a democracy, that is, capable of ‘ruling themselves’ or ‘selfrule’. Ideal citizens in a democracy should seek to be well-informed, have independent decision-making abilities with regard to community affairs, possess high degree ...

Reading Democracy and Education

What is John Dewey’s Democracy and Education? In a literal sense, it is a study of education and its relation to the individual and society. Moreover, Dewey tells us, it is a philosophical rather than historical, sociological, or political inquiry. His original title for the work was An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education. That was the heading he had in view when he signed a contract to...

Deliberative Democracy and Education

From Managed Democracy to Sovereign Democracy

The first year of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s second term has been disastrous. A series of crises has occurred, from the assassination of Chechen President Akhmad Kadyrov in Grozny in May 2004, to the widespread demonstrations against the government’s seriously flawed attempt to replace social and other benefits with cash payments. Fighters staged raids in Grozny and Ingushetia, the gove...