Formal civic education programmes introduced into existing state schools have been particularly important in eastern Europe in providing a point of reference for allowing these countries to deepen the democracies that were created in the collapse of the Soviet Union and the subsequent break up of states held together by their reliance on the USSR.

In some countries, these programmes were as important in establishing the need for further education of teachers and for reform in the curriculum and the schooling systems. In addition, they often operate in the aftermath of more non-formal education driven by civil society organizations in the run up to and through the democratic transition.

During the early years after a democratic transition, finding funds and resources for civic education outside the normal revenue available to countries is relatively easy. As democratic success establishes routine politics, the motivation for it diminishes. So, early institutionalization is important, but that institutionalization is often hampered by weaknesses in key institutions such as schools, legislatures, and civic organizations. Therefore civic educators must pay attention to building up the strength of local institutions – to their management, administration, and intellectual capacity, and to the working skills and procedures which are taken for granted in more established democracies.

Curricula will often be concerned with issues of nation building and may even seek to demobilize civil society formations that have been involved in democratic agitation. These are natural but short sighted approaches to an extended democracy and development policy in which citizen agency is essential. It is possible to develop a middle road in which democratic agitation can be converted into a concern for citizenship in a democratic state.