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Opens with a look at the current state of youth & young adult political engagement/detachment, before focusing on civic education as a traditional means of fostering political engagement. Results from the 1998 National Assessment of Educational Progress Civics Assessment & other data reveal poor results for civic education, which is seen to be in decline since the 1960s. In this light, the relevance of civic education is articulated in terms of the relationship between such information & good citizenship. Effective approaches to civic education are noted along with the challenge inherent to such education in the face of paradigmatic differences regarding the kind of citizenship Americans wish to see taught. 12 References. J. Zendejas

Norwegian civic education traces its origin almost 200 years back in time. Until World War II, its main focus was on constitutional matters and on the formal structure of governmental institutions. After 1945, and in particular after the 1970s, conceptions of civic education change. Among others, critical perspectives, political participation and democratic ideals became major issues. Have these ideas been able to influence teaching practices?L'éducation civique norvégienne s'est développée depuis presque 200 ans. Jusqu'à la seconde guerre mondiale, le contenu principal portait sur la constitution et la structure formelle des institutions politiques de l'état. Après la guerre, et surtout après 1970, jaillirent de nouvelles idées plus radicales sur l'éducation civique changeant le cadre de l'enseignement. Ces idées amenèrent une reformulation des objectifs fondamentaux basés sur des perspectives critiques, une participation politique plus importante et les idéaux démocratiques. Mais ces idées, ont-elles influencé l'enseignement de cette matière dans les écoles norvégiennes?

Young people's distance from politics is seen as a central problem of democratic societies. Compared to the first IEA-study in the era of political mobilization during the early seventies the results for today's young Germans are worse. Regarding political knowledge, the results for young Germans are mediocre; conspicuous and alarming is the unwillingness of German youngsters to participate in school, politics and society. These results can be explained by using data and relations found by the international comparative project Civic Education about the specific meaning of conditions and results of political education in different school systems and societies. This paper discusses several results and questions and shows that one-dimensional explanations are hardly possible in the complex field of political education.

Analyzing the process of election in Latvia and the European Union it is obvious that the activity of electors is decreasing. Disloyalty towards authorities and executives is increasing, which may result in a crisis of democracy in the nearest future. To promote civic activity it is necessary to carry out the civic education in a more practical aspect because it is a base for making a social responsibility for the environment and social activities. Schools, the sources of mental development and the development of personality are crucial for the development of the country as well. By using professional experience and the theoretical and empirical methods of processing data, this article gives an overview of the activity of electors in Latvia and the European Union, identifies the practical aspects of the civic education in the stages of elementary and high school and gives practical suggestions for the developing of civic education through the stages of elementary and high school through the studying process and beyond it.

Impudent, disrespectful and packed with slapstick comedy – this is the most prominent and most controversial cartoon family in TV history: The Simpsons. Critics complain about the decay of manners and the offensive humor of the show. There is considerable potential for civic education in the yellow universe of The Simpsons, however. On the basis of three Simpsons-episodes this article analyzes the depiction of elections and electoral races in a media democracy. This analysis aims at extracting critical positions from the satiric presentation of debates, media events and political rhetoric and connecting them to real campaigns in Germany and the USA. The examples are supposed to illustrate that The Simpsons do provide critical access to understanding campaigns in media societies – despite all satiric exaggeration of real events. Furthermore, the article shows that the series does not only comment critically on almost any event of social relevance, but also, more importantly, how we can make these comments work in civic education.

The success of democracy depends on the formation of the social capital conducive to the maintenance of democratic patterns of behavior. Civic education is the most important instrument of the formation of such social capital and is, therefore, an essential responsibility of the democratic state. The concept of social capital, introduced in the social science theory by such authors as Pierre Bourdieu (1984) and James Coleman (1988), implies that the quality of democracy depends on the relations between citizens, particularly on the acceptance of such values as trust in others and willingness to accept them as equals. Consequently, the way in which human rights are perceived in a society has profound importance for the quality of political life and constitutes the crucial component of democratic political culture.

The purpose of this study was to investigate how Twitter could be used to support civic education in a rural, low-income school district in Maine. Twitter was used in the classroom to supplement and enrich a unit on the Civil Rights Movement and also to inform students about the political process. Findings indicate that Twitter can effectively be used to engage students, inform about the political process, and enrich content when used with purposeful instruction. Recommendations for educators include long-term implementation of the tool, on-going feedback from students, and purposeful implementation into curriculum.

All political regimes face the challenge of preserving themselves. External threats can be dangerous but in most cases they are also obvious; the more subtle challenge is sustaining the integrity of the regime itself. In a constitutional republic such as the United States, this requires maintenance of political institutions to be sure, but also—and more fundamentally—the proper attachment of the people to the Constitution. Can such attachment be cultivated without undermining the principles of self-government? While democratic theorists in America going back at least as far as Jefferson have worried that enduring constitutional forms prevent authentic democratic rule, my purpose here is to compare two well-known texts that answer the question in the affirmative, James Madison's Federalist 49 and Abraham Lincoln's Lyceum Address.