Helen Osieja

Education for Democracy in the 21st Century Helen Osieja

Democracy in the 21st century is jeopardized in many parts of the world. Yet people who live in autocratic systems struggle for democracy, because democracy is the only political system that respects the rights of the people. The aim of this textbook is to present the tenets of democracy for young people who will soon come of age and become citizens as well as for people who have immigrated to a democratic country from a non-democratic country and do not know what rules apply, as well as for people in democratic countries who tend to forget that in a democracy everybody has rights.

While democracy is by no means a perfect political system, it is the only one in which people of different ideologies, religions, lifestyles and ethnicities can live together: Democracy is based on tolerance and pluralism, characteristics that do not exist in other political systems.

However, democracy does not only imply rights for the citizens- it implies obligations and responsibilities. This textbook can be used for a basic course on democracy or can be incorporated as a literature supplement for social studies courses.