The Structural Relationships Between Democracy and Education at the Macro Level

This chapter deals with the macro level functional relationships between democracy and education, starting from the fact that education, as a social institution, cannot be configured independently from the administrational and economic policies of the state.

The development of democracies depends upon the level of knowledge and awareness that societies have reached. For the education institutions to be able to communicate this knowledge and awareness, the will and demand of the government that represents the state are required since curricula cannot be designed independent of this will and demand.

The decisiveness of the state and governments about imparting knowledge and awareness of democracy through education is not an adequate variable in analyzing the macro level relationships between democracy and education.

Education policies that aim at providing equal opportunities and oriented to imparting knowledge and awareness to “all citizens” are also needed. In democracies, the existence of citizens who can study and think in depth is so important that these skills should not be limited to only a specific segment of the society.

In this context, a political system will not be deemed to have acted in sufficient force at the macro level to sustain and protect democracy unless it has stamped its will and wish to be a democratic state onto the education curricula, and unless it has provided equal opportunities in education to all its citizens so as to enable them to acquire the skill to think and evaluate in depth.

Keywords: Political culture, political development, equality of opportunity.