How can democracy be learned? And how successful are we at teaching and learning it? This book
does three things: First it explains why civic education is important for the growth and
survival of (any type of) democracy. Second it focuses on a particular country which is in
many ways representative for the general problems of post-communist transition to democracy. It
carefully examines the practical reality of civic education in Romania both at the level of
general schooling and in higher education. Emphasis lies on the ways in which the ideals of
civic education clash with post-communist realities and on the obstacles that continue to exist
in this transition country to the democratic empowerment of citizens through education.
Scarcity of resources corruption in many forms and attitudes of deference to authority among
other problems perpetuate a situation in which education fails to support democratization and
instead reflects the failures of regimes of the past. Third the book offers concrete
recommendations for how civic education in Romania (and elsewhere) can be improved. How can
education be organized to successfully support the realization of democratic ideals?This book
is based on its main authors direct experience working in the field of civic education in
Romania between 1999 and 2005 and draws on her wider expertise in the study of Romanian
political economy and the countrys European integration as well as in the fields of political
psychology and democratic theory.
