During the past 30 years, there has been a global surge of democracy. For most people of the world today, democracy is the prevailing source of political legitimacy. In 2002, 121 of the world's 192 sovereign states could be recognized as democracies in terms of the minimal global standard for an electoral democracy. This digest discusses: (1) the…

This digest argues that free, public libraries foster and fortify democracy and democratic citizenship. Because libraries offer services and materials representing many points of view, they allow citizens to fulfill their civic and personal responsibilities and to exercise their liberties. Particularly for former communist countries, libraries can…

In May 1990, the Republic of Latvia declared the restoration of its independence from the Soviet Union. After that declaration, many Latvians began to reform their schools' curricula and teaching methods. They replaced Soviet-era citizenship courses with new teaching materials and methods appropriate for educating the young citizens of a…

The concept of citizenship is at the core of education for democracy. This Digest presents what citizenship is; why citizenship is an essential element of democracy; and how to teach about citizenship in a democracy. In a democracy, the source of all authority (the legitimate basis of all power) is the collective body of the people, the citizens…

This book provides a reflective analysis of the effort since 1991 of a group of Polish and U.S. educators to develop civic education programs for schools and teachers in Poland. The book contains 13 chapters and three appendices. Chapters include: (1) "Principles of Democracy for the Education of Citizens in Former Communist Countries of…

During the 1990s, there has been an unprecedented global dissemination of information about the theory and practice of democracy and civic education for democracy. This digest identifies nine trends having broad potential for influencing civic education in the constitutional democracies of the world: (1) conceptualization of civic education in…

This theme issue of "The International Journal of Social Education" contains 11 articles all concerned with efforts to promote civic education in post-communist countries, particularly former Soviet-Bloc nations, including Latvia, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Russia. Described are international partnerships for civic…

Many totalitarian communist states throughout the world have broken up during the 1990's, and citizens in those countries, from Central and South American to Central and Eastern Europe, are working to build constitutional democracies out of the rubble. Part of creating these new governments is devising new school curricula to include civic…

Is it possible to develop an international consensus on the meaning of democracy and education for democratic citizenship? A cooperative project administered by the Center for Civic Education (CCE) in Calabasas, California is attempting to answer this question. Since 1996, the CCE has been developing "An International Framework for Education…

Reviews 10 resources on First Amendment issues and related social studies topics available from the Educational Resource Information Center (ERIC). Presents information pertinent both to the classroom teacher and to school administrators concerned about First Amendment issues. Gives annotated bibliographical information. (CH)

The fall of communism in eastern and central Europe inspired the call for curriculum development in citizenship education throughout the growing democratic world. Many programs between U.S. institutions and newly developing democracies continue to produce curricula for democratic citizenship suited to local needs. This digest discusses: (1)…

This collection of essays was derived from a meeting sponsored by the Center for Civic Education (California) and conducted by the Social Studies Development Center (Indiana). The meeting's central theme was education for democratic citizenship of prospective social studies teachers. Following an introduction, essays in the collection are: (1)…

This resource guide is intended to facilitate cooperation and exchange of knowledge among civic educators around the world. The guide is divided into six parts. Part 1 consists of three civic education papers: "Education and Democratic Citizenship: Where We Stand" (Albert Shanker); "Civil Society and Democracy Reconsidered"…

This resource guide is intended to facilitate cooperation and exchange of knowledge among civic educators around the world. Divided into four parts, part 1 is a civic education paper, "Principles of Democracy for the Education of Citizens" (John J. Patrick), that discusses facets of the idea of democracy and their relationships to civic…

This digest, drawn from a larger study, looks at six community colleges and community college systems in regard to how they are attempting to serve their urban communities. The author defines urban community colleges as being in or close to major cities, and serving large numbers of economically and educationally disadvantaged students from…