Here are at least five standard messages (or themes) that should be covered in a civic education programme.
- the meaning of democracy
- the role, responsibility and rights of citizens
- good governance
- democratic principles and procedures
- democratic institutions and laws
Background
The purpose of civic education is to encourage citizens to participate fully in the political life of a community and country committed to the fundamental values and principles of democracy. With this as a working purpose, those planning and conducting civic education programmes have developed considerable variety in their syllabi or curricula.
At school level, institutions in Australia and the United States of America have established standards or benchmarks setting out precisely what should be covered in an educational programme. Such precision does not seem to be similarly available in other countries, nor is it available for informal interventions with adults. Yet civic education, if conducted only at schools, has the potential to reduce itself to the same level as other subjects which become irrelevant either after school or even during the school period because of the limited opportunities for children to participate in political life.
There is some consensus about the types of messages that have to be developed into theoretical statements that form the backbone of a standard civic education curriculum for adults. These messages will be supplemented by additional materials that take seriously the history of each society and the way it deals with the concepts of contingent consent and bounded uncertainty, and the rules and practices of their particular democracy. These standard messages will revolve around the following topics:
The meaning of democracy--definitions, types, and challenges. As an example of what educators might prepare to guide them in their discussion of this subject area, and to make available in educational materials, a document has been prepared that deals with the definition of democracy. The same document also suggests ways in which the subject matter could be used in an educational event and conveyed to a group of learners. Similar documents could be created for each topic.
The role, responsibilities and rights of citizens. See Standard Voter Education Messages for discussion of this subject and the importance of dealing with both rights and responsibilities. Individual citizens have limited power in relation to a state unless that state respects and protects the rights of that citizen. Without that protection, it is difficult to speak of responsibilities. Indeed, the
responsibility of the person is likely to be to force that state to recognise human rights and democracy.
Good governance. A citizen is empowered to the extent that he or she understands how government operates and has criteria for judging its performance. As government has increasingly come to be seen as a process in which the state, elected officials, and individuals acting in concert govern collaboratively, it has been called governance. Good governance not only requires citizen participation, it educates those citizens about democracy and participation.
But good governance must fulfil certain criteria, such as transparency, legitimacy, accountability, responsiveness, and effectiveness. It must do this under conditions where participation may force tradeoffs between efficiency and democracy. These are amongst the most important and most difficult concepts to consider in a civic education programme.
Democratic principles and procedures. Democracy has values. But more importantly it is about certain practices, rituals, procedures, and so on that result in giving citizens choices, ensuring representative government, and a regular opportunity to judge the effectiveness of that government.
The values or principles are expressed in action. So citizens will want to understand the principles, which might be universal, and the manner in which different societies have constructed themselves to ensure that these principles are expressed. They will also explore the manner in which their own country's practices enhance or inhibit democratic principles.
The advantage of separating these two is that it does not favour the importation of practices that one country may take for granted are the sine qua non of democracy without testing whether this is in fact so or whether the same principles can be manifest in more culturally appropriate forms.
Democratic institutions and laws. Each country is likely to have its own set, however new, of democratic institutions and laws. These have to be acknowledged and understood if people are going to be able to make use of them, assist in refining or altering them, and change or disestablish them.
Educators have to work out ways to ensure that materials appropriate to their own country are prepared to cover these topics. It is possible to obtain general and comparative information. While this is important in and of itself, it is only as this general and comparative information speaks directly to the needs of the learner group that it really comes to life. Indeed, educators have to constantly make themselves open to finding new examples from different places and different times to relate to their own circumstances.
A set of general introductory materials has been listed in the bibliography (see Voter Education Bibliography). Sample instructional materials and 'How To' manuals can also be found beginning with Voter guide - New Zealand. The case study section may also be of interest.
