It is not possible for any country, or for any organisation, to constantly conduct ad hoc civic education campaigns. Sooner or later, civic education must become a regular part of existing institutions or become an institution on its own.
Schools-Based Institutionalisation
At the moment, the primary concern for civic educators is institutionalisation through its attachment to primary and secondary school systems. In countries that have universal schooling and sufficient resources to develop national curricula, this is one way in which civic education can develop roots that will enable it to outlive any particular political moment or individual visionary.
The school, however, is only one option open to people, and in countries where schooling itself is a tenuous institution, the strategy is at risk. In countries where schooling is less tenuous but firmly linked to government policy, the strategy is also at risk as civic education can be watered down to become merely an instrument of control.
So those seeking to institutionalise civic education will want to consider other ways in which it can become part of daily life.
Making Sure Democracy is Consolidated
The first of these ways, and perhaps the most difficult, is to make sure democracy survives. Without a democratic system in which citizens exist, have rights and responsibilities, and can conduct themselves in civic affairs, it is hard to envisage any educational programme being successful. Yet, in societies in transition, where democratic institutions and norms have yet do develop - or are just being developed - some sort of civic education intervention will be necessary to educate citizens about their changing system as well as their rights, roles and responsibilities in that system. In any case, participating in civic affairs is itself a form of civic education, and is likely to be the most dominant form for the majority of adults.
While an argument is being made that schooling has a long-term and cumulative effect on the polity, and that therefore civic education is an investment in the future, there is still considerable work to be done on testing that assumption. And it has to be tested over time and in relation to a range of different educational interventions in the schooling system. This is not to gainsay the importance, for individual citizens, of a civic education programme of some sort at school level but rather to caution against assuming that this is sufficient protection for democracy in the long term.
Establish a Civic Education Culture
The second way to institutionalise civic education is to establish a national civic education presence that can promote the subject and its importance in a wide range of existing institutions such as the national media, higher education, government departments, and civil society networks. Such a presence may be created by the establishment of commissions, councils,
national civic education boards or organisations, published texts for use by a broad range of educators, or by a national civic education policy framework. A combination of these may be possible.
Give the Job to a Statutory Body
A third approach may be to ensure that a statutory body, such as an election authority, is given the responsibility for national civic education. With voter education increasingly seen as a combination of voter information and civic education, and with the strong relationship of successful elections to ongoing democratic consolidation, this may be appropriate. In countries where there is no permanent election authority, however, this would not be an option.
Where election authorities are permanent bodies, assigning them civic education functions can still be problematic. For example, it may distract those who have an already onerous job from this job, or take an election authority, by a series of small stages, into the type of constitutional and social controversy from which it may not be able to recover. Consideration needs also to be given to whether or not the election authority's legal mandate can accomodate a role in on-going civic education activities.
Establish a Democracy Fund Beyond Political Parties
A fourth approach, that may be encouraged on the basis that civic education is a national priority but that democracy is best served by a broad civil society, may be for the state to establish a civic education fund from which civil society organisations can draw. A number of countries have funds from which political parties can draw in order to sustain the multi-party nature of their democracy (see Political Parties and Voter Education). Some have set democratisation as a priority in their international development aid budgets. There are surprisingly few state funds available for domestic civic education projects and programmes and among those who do fund these types of activities, funding levels vary significantly.