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International value surveys and misconception studies reveal the crucial role of individual value orientations for political judgment abilities. But in Civic Education, political opinions are generally merely asked for or remain superficial, non-committal statements that don't get analyzed to foster identity development, perspective-taking and tolerance. Thus, this article discusses Kitschelt's coordinate system of political preferences as an outstanding solution to fill the ideology gap in Civic Education and therefore to enhance political literacy. At first, I will explain and outline the landscape of the four political ideologies: market-liberalism, conservatism, democratic socialism and left-libertarianism. In addition, I will trace left-libertarianism to its merely known anarchist roots. After that, I will explain how our basic political values are shaped by economic and cultural developments and how they combine to become political ideologies, social milieus and party families. As a third point, I will outline possible applications of Kitschelt's model for the subject of Civic Education. For that, I propose a map of fundamental controversial issues to help students to discover their own political position. Finally, I will introduce the "Found-a-Village-Project" as highly interactive and controversial scenario to foster political identity formation.

In this article, I situate the practice of sexual orientation conversion efforts (SOCE), sometimes known as conversion or reparative therapy, within historical, cultural, religious and political attitudes to non-heterosexuality. Using documentary analysis, I investigate the contemporary resistance of two socially conservative organizations: National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) (US) and Core Issues Trust (UK), to legal and professional regulation of the sexual orientation change efforts (SOCE) which they advocate. A number of themes emerged from the various documentation. The most convincing of these themes is a claim that to provide SOCE is to respect client's autonomy rights to diminish unwanted sexual attraction, and to live in accordance with the moral principles that they value. I demonstrate that neither NARTH nor Core Issues Trust are consistent in their regard for client autonomy. I suggest that the most plausible reason for these organizations' emphasis on autonomy and other secular tropes, such as scientific proof and progressive language, is that they provide a smokescreen for conservative Christian values. If we value a world of LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans) rights and recognition, we must counter this backlash against sexual and social justice.

© 2017 by the authors. In this article, I situate the practice of sexual orientation conversion efforts (SOCE), sometimes known as conversion or reparative therapy, within historical, cultural, religious and political attitudes to non-heterosexuality. Using documentary analysis, I investigate the contemporary resistance of two socially conservative organizations: National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) (US) and Core Issues Trust (UK), to legal and professional regulation of the sexual orientation change efforts (SOCE) which they advocate. A number of themes emerged from the various documentation. The most convincing of these themes is a claim that to provide SOCE is to respect client's autonomy rights to diminish unwanted sexual attraction, and to live in accordance with the moral principles that they value. I demonstrate that neither NARTH nor Core Issues Trust are consistent in their regard for client autonomy. I suggest that the most plausible reason for these organizations' emphasis on autonomy and other secular tropes, such as scientific proof and progressive language, is that they provide a smokescreen for conservative Christian values. If we value a world of LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans) rights and recognition, we must counter this backlash against sexual and social justice.

Background: This study investigated the relationships between the Dark Triad of personality (sub-clinical psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and narcissism) and four political variables: socio-religious conservatism, support for greater economic equality, overall liberal–conservative orientation, and interest in politics. A theoretical approach that focused on the influence of the Dark Triad in large groups was provided to interpret those relationships. Methodological issues found in previous research that related to the use of abbreviated scales to measure the dark traits and the use of unidimensional indicators of political orientations were addressed. Methods: A hierarchical regression analysis was conducted to determine whether any of the three dark traits could explain variance in the aforementioned political attributes over and above that accounted for by the Big Five, sex, age, and nationality, using the full personality scales and measures of political orientation that captured both social and economic liberalism–conservatism. Results: Machiavellianism uniquely predicted lower levels of socio-religious conservatism, and both Machiavellianism and narcissism uniquely predicted lower levels of overall conservatism. Conclusions: There were important links between the Dark Triad and politics.