write an essay on democracy cannot survive without education

Democracy Can Not Survive Without Education, Views Either For or Against

Democracy Can Not Survive Without Education, Express your views either for or against this statement. In a democracy which rests on the pillar of free people, one cannot survive without education. Education of its citizens takes predominance as the choices made by the people should be the outcome of a defined thought process, which cannot happen in a vacuum. Visit official website CISCE for detail information about ICSE Board Class-10

Democracy Can Not Survive Without Education, Views Either For or Against This Statement

For a healthy Democracy people should be educated but some time it has a dark face also . therefore there are two Face on question of Education in Democracy.

For The Statement

The Education needs to start right from a person’s childhood because if he is untaught, his ignorance and vices would cost us dearly, creating a need to correct them later on in life. On the other hand, if children are educated, they would imbibe virtue and values that would enable them to contribute as responsible citizens to the democracy.

Education should not just stop at the common man, but should also reach out for the training of able counselors so that they can administer the affairs of the country in all matters that include legislative, executive and judiciary. For a democracy to be alive, it needs people with truth and integrity in all the departments and that is possible only through education and by which a country can be led to prosperity, happiness, and power. Hence It is true that education is the backbone for any democracy to function well and all citizens must be educated.

Against The Statement

The common man, for example, might not be interested in the functioning and running of the governments and its departments such as the judicial, executive and legislative. He would probably be more concerned with fulfilling his immediate needs and relax, once his goal has been reached. He is not worried about the everyday happenings of a democracy.

Most often, it is the ignorance of the common, which hinders their involvement in the processes of democracy, for they choose to be so. In such a case, it is not the educated and enlightened ones who mislead people. It is the lackadaisical or apathetic response to the democratic process. Therefore, it can be said that education of all citizens is not required for democracy to survive.

—: End of Democracy Can Not Survive Without Education, Views Either For or Against :–

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2 thoughts on “Democracy Can Not Survive Without Education, Views Either For or Against”

It was really very informative and interesting to read the solved topics. It would be very helpful if this trend continues.

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The Role of Education in Democracy

Posted October 8, 2020
By Jill Anderson

Many people question the state of democracy in America. This is especially true of young people, who no longer share the same interest in democracy as the generations before them. Professor Danielle Allen , director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, has long studied what citizens need in order to succeed in democracy and how our social studies and civics education have impacted democracy.

"We have really disinvested in civic education and social studies. You can see that now in the comparison that we currently spend $54 per year per kid of federal dollars on STEM education and only 5 cents per year per kid on civics,” Allen says. “We have really ceased to lay the foundation in K–12 for young people to understand democracy, be motivated to participate in it, to have the skills and tools they need to participate effectively, and as a result, enjoy participation."

In this episode, Allen discusses how we got where we are today and what it will take to reinvest in education for democracy.

Find ways to tell “an integrated version of U.S. history that is simultaneously honest about the crimes and wrongs of the past, but without falling into cynicism,” Allen says.
When broaching a challenging topic in the classroom, begin from a place of inquiry. Try not to start with the instructional content or even understanding the issue, but let students think about what comes to mind about the issue and record their feelings and how they connect to it. “I think it’s really important that teachers be able to see what the starting points are – both analytically and emotionally that students have for engaging with these issues,” she says.
To raise engaged citizens, Allen suggests bringing democratic practices of reason giving into the life of a family. “There are lots of lessons inside a family that can feed in to help the understanding of democratic practice,” Allen says.

I'm Jill Anderson. This is the Harvard EdCast. Harvard's Danielle Allen knows young people aren't as invested in democracy like the generations before them. Today, fewer than 30% under age 40 even consider it important to live in a democracy. Allen is a political theorist who's long studied what citizens need in order for democracy to succeed.

Education plays a big part in how we think about democracy, yet America's classrooms haven't always emphasized these subjects. With the presidential election just weeks away, I wanted to understand how education can preserve democracy and whether tensions rising in America signal a change underway.

Danielle Allen: In another moment of crisis in the country, The Cold War, the country really turned to science and technology to meet the moment. So there's the period during World War II, the Manhattan Project, for example, which really brought universities into the project of supporting national security with the pursuit of the atom bomb. That was a point in time, it was really the beginning of decades long investment in STEM education. That was important.

We needed to do that, but at the same time, over that same 50 year period, we have really disinvested in civic education and social studies. You can see that now in the comparison that we currently spend $54 per year per kid of federal dollars on STEM education and only 5 cents per year per kid on civics. So we have really ceased to lay the foundation in K–12 for young people to understand democracy, be motivated to participate in it, to have the skills and tools they need to participate effectively and as a result, enjoy participation.

Jill Anderson: We're also living in a time when teaching history is being really politicized and I'm wondering how you think we can effectively teach history and democracy to young people.

Danielle Allen: I've been really privileged over the last 15 months or so to be a part of a cross-institutional network under the banners and they call it the Educating for American Democracy Project and my center Harvard, the ethics centers participating. Jane Kamensky, who directs the Schlesinger Library for Women as a PI Tufts, Arizona state university and this group has pulled together a network of hundreds of scholars across the country with the goal of developing a blueprint, a roadmap for the integration of history and civics education K–12.

The reason I'm going through all of that is because at an early point in our work, directly thinking about the issue you just raised or polarization of our national history and polarization of education around civics, we decided that we were going to do two things on our roadmap.

One was to really structure it around inquiry to really focus on the kinds of questions that should be asked over the span of K–12 more so than on the answers and also that we would really focus on design challenges. That instead of seeing the disagreement about how to narrate our nation's history as a kind of end of the conversation, we would see it as the beginning of a conversation. So for instance, one of the design challenges we put to educators is that we have to find a way to tell an integrated version of US history that is simultaneously honest about the crimes and wrongs of the past, but without falling into cynicism and also appreciative in appropriate ways of the founding era without tipping into gamification.

So what we try to do is to say, "This is a design challenge. We don't know exactly what the answer is to meriting a history in this way that integrates clear-eyed view of the problems as well as a clear-eyed view of the goods and the potentialities, but we believe it can be done and we believe that this big country with so many committed educators is a place where we can experiment our way into solutions."

Jill Anderson: Right. One of the things I think is interesting as you look at the polls and voter turnout, and you often see young people not being as engaged, but when you look at some of the protests that have been happening around the country, it seems to be largely younger people. Is that a shift happening in our democracy where young people are maybe becoming more engaged?

Danielle Allen: It's certainly the case that young people are showing engagement through their participation in social movements and protests. In that regard, the moment is a lot like the 1960s with similar levels of engagement from young people. The question is whether or not young people who engage in the democracy tool of a social movement or of a protest can also understand themselves to have access to the tool of using political institutions. So social movements are an important part of the democracy toolkit, but they're just a part.

So it's really a question of whether or not young people see value in political institutions too, and can knit these things together. To some extent, I think that actually we really need to do work to redesign, even for example, our electoral system. So when we look around and we see that lots of people are disaffected or alienated or feel disempowered, that doesn't just mean that they're sort of haven't got enough education or don't have the right perspective.

It also means that our institutions aren't delivering what they promise. They're not responsive. They don't generally empower ordinary people and they very often don't deliver sort of equal representation. So in that regard, everybody, all citizens, civic participants have a job to do to think about redesigning our institutions so that they achieve those things.

On that front. I was again, fortunate to participate with a huge network of people through the American Academy Of Arts And Sciences, a commission on the future of the of practice of democratic citizenship and we released a report in June the 31 recommendations, a chunk of which are about redesigning our electoral system to deliver that responsive, empowering form of government that also provides equal representation.

Jill Anderson: Do you think something like this pandemic could be a tipping point because so much has moved online and I'm wondering how you think that might change civic action in education?

Danielle Allen: Well, the pandemic without any question is a huge exogenous shock, as we would say in social sciences, that it's a transformative event. Period. The magnitude is so significant. I think we're a very long way from being able to see and understand all of its impacts and consequences. For me personally, one of the things it has driven home is the weaknesses in our practices of governance. These weaknesses are partly institutional and partly cultural. Our polarization is one of the significant causes of our failure to come to grips with the current crisis. So I think for lots of people, the pandemic is really bringing our vulnerabilities to the surface. Also, for example, the disparate impacts across racial and ethnic groups of the disease and the underlying disparities in health equity has really come to the fore to visibility. So I think a lot of people are really focused in a more intensive way than in the past on addressing those problems.

I always sort of have a lot of confidence in the kind of creative energies of human beings when they really sort of see and face problems. So I believe that the moment does give us an opportunity to transform our conception of what we want for our society, what it means to name the public good, what it means to invest in the public good and my hope is that we'll be able to pull energy around a concept of the public good with us in the coming years.

Jill Anderson: We have this huge election coming up and the pandemic has somewhat overshadowed the election a little bit. I look at parents and their children and wonder are there things that parents could be doing at home to help raise their children to be more engaged and value democracy?

Danielle Allen: Well, I think there are a number of things. I mean, I actually think it matters to bring democratic practices of reason giving for example, into the life of a family. That can be very hard. Family structures are often and for very good reason, very hierarchical. So within the sort of context of hierarchical family structures, how can parents foster reason giving, hear their children's reasons for things, help their children understand what it means to engage in the back and forth around reasons, help them understand what it means for one person to lose out in one decision-making moment, but then to win out in another moment and nonetheless, even though we sort of exchange sacrifices for one another over the course of collective decision-making, our commitment to our social bond is so strong that that makes that sort of exchange of burdens tolerable. So I think there are lots of lessons inside a family that can feed into help the understanding of democratic practice.

Jill Anderson: One last final question would be if you have any thoughts or advice to share with the teachers out there who are working hard, and many of them working remotely to try to teach lessons about the upcoming election and all the things happening in the world.

Danielle Allen: So teachers really always have a hard job, and it's so hard now between the remote learning and the intensity of the external environment, the political questions and the debates and so forth. I think it's really important to remember that different students will bring different kinds of perspectives and exposures with them into the classroom. So I think when a teacher is trying to engage a hard topic, whether it's a hard element of history or a controversial issue in our contemporary debates, it's really important to start by bringing to the surface what's already in students' minds.

So maybe you use a Google doc, maybe you use a chat function, but when a topic comes up before sort of launching into the instructional content or the real digesting of the issue, just go ahead and let the students record the first thing that comes to mind for them when they hear the relevant issue and let them record the emotion that they connect to that issue. I think it's really important that teachers be able to see what the starting points are, both analytically and emotionally that students have for engaging with these [inaudible 00:10:35] issues.

Jill Anderson: Well, I want to thank you so much for taking the time and talking and sharing your thoughts today.

Danielle Allen: Thank you, Jill. Appreciate your interest.

Jill Anderson: Danielle Allen is the director of the Edmond J. Safra Center For Ethics at Harvard. She's a professor at the Harvard graduate school of education and faculty of arts and sciences. She leads the Democratic Knowledge Project, which focuses on how to strengthen and build that knowledge that democratic citizens need to operate their democracy. I'm Jill Anderson. This is the Harvard EdCast produced by the Harvard graduate school of education. Thanks for listening.

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November 21, 2022

The final results of the 2022 midterm election in the United States are in. Journalists tell us that a key issue for voters was preservation of democracy . A recent NPR/PBS NewsHour /Marist poll showed that while inflation was the top issue on voters’ minds, “preserving democracy” captured second place. The issue that claimed little attention was education . Yet, as Thomas Jefferson once said, “An educated citizenry is a vital requisite for our survival as a free people.” That is, if we care about democracy, we must also care about education.

Only $ 10 million were spent on education ads by both parties between Labor Day and late October 2022, compared to $103 million spent on abortion ads by Democrats and $89 million spent on tax ads by Republicans. When education was discussed, political scientist Sarah Hill suggests that the topic was narrowly construed around culture war issues, including parental rights and ideologically-driven curriculum changes like banning books .

Sadly, conversation about education was limited in the most recent American election. We desperately need to ignite this discussion.

Given the lack of discussion around education, it is fair to repeat the claim made in 1983 that our nation is at risk . Now more than ever, the populous is required to sift truth from fiction among the many hyperbolic claims made by politicians on both sides. Without strong critical thinking skills, it is nearly impossible to manage the amount of content that people encounter every day and to form cogent opinions—be it on issues like health care, inflation, or climate change.

We are failing the next generation of citizens. Our recent Brookings blog on the latest National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores makes this point. It showed how students’ levels of proficiency in reading and math were already relatively low pre-pandemic, with the important qualifications that NAEP proficiency is not equivalent to grade level proficiency and a high academic standard to achieve. In fact, proficiency on the NAEP requires a deeper understanding of reading and math skills, including the application of critical thinking in relation to subject area content. And many reports suggest that even reaching proficiency (as defining success through the lens of just reading and writing) will not be enough to achieve Jefferson’s vision. Children need to learn a breadth of skills that includes—but goes beyond—content, to go from classroom to career success.

Our recent discussion of education facilitated by Brookings on November 9 following the launch of our book, “ Making Schools Work: Bringing the Science of Learning to Joyful Classroom Practice, ” explored a comprehensive, but flexible, framework for how to educate children with a breadth of skills—how to educate children to be caring, thinking, and creative citizens for tomorrow. Born from research in the science of learning , we suggest that we must teach in the way that human brains learn through an active (not passive) pedagogy that is engaging rather than distracting, meaningful with clear connections to prior lessons and students’ out-of-school experiences, socially interactive instead of entirely solo, iterative with room for experimentation and trial and error, and joyful rather than dull and repetitive. This is the antithesis of what is going on in many schools across the globe that were fashioned for a bygone era. If we do embrace a more modern educational model, students can be strong across the skills required to navigate school, work and society: collaboration , communication, content , critical thinking , creative innovation , and confidence (the ability to persist even after a failure and to know that you can grow with experience) .

Sadly, conversation about education was limited in the most recent American election. We desperately need to ignite this discussion. If our graduates are to outsmart the robots, to be viable for the job market, and to be discerning voters and citizens, education must literally be on the ballot. Yes, a major issue for voters this year was the precarious nature of our democracy. Our democracy, however, cannot survive if we do not educate our citizens. As The Atlantic proclaimed, “ Democracy was on the Ballot and Won .” If it is to keep winning, we must discuss education reform. Our science of learning can lead the way. It is imperative that children learn a breadth of skills that they can carry with them into the voting booth.

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Relationship between democracy and education.

write an essay on democracy cannot survive without education

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This article provides an essay on the intimate relationship between democracy and education.

Subject Matter:

It is an admitted fact that there is an intimate relationship between democracy and education. In a democracy, education is given primacy, for it is pre-requisite for the survival and success of the former. Similarly, education fosters a democratic temper in the minds of people.

Democratic values like liberty, equality, fraternity justice, dignity of individual, co-operation, sharing of responsibility etc. are applied to education to make it more effective, meaningful, relevant and useful.

Democracy in order to be a reality and a way of life has to be introduced from the very beginning of education and its values need to be practiced in educational institutions. Before a thorough discussion on the inalienable relationship between the two-democracy and education, it is essential to unfold the meaning of democracy.

Democracy is a form of government in which there prevails the rule of majority. It is government of the people, by the people and for the people. This is a political connotation of the term democracy. Economically, it is a system where no one is exploited, where everybody is assured a fair standard of living, where there is equal opportunity for work according to abilities and capacities, where economic organization is based on collective or co-operative basis and where economic projects are geared for the benefit of the community at large but not for any private bodies.

Socially, it connotes absence of all distractions based on class, caste, creed, birth, religion, language or possession of money. Everyone is guaranteed fundamental rights, and equality of opportunities is given for the fullest development of personality.

Thus, it is social justice which is central to the understanding of democracy. Dignity of individual is accorded a primacy in it. In other words, there exists a paramount faith in the worth of the common man. There is no domination of any individual or group over another.

There prevails a sense of co-operation, fellow-felineness, fraternity, liberty, responsibility, understanding and justice. Therefore, democracy has been construed as a way of life, a way of doing things and a way of seeing and knowing. John Dewey says, “A democracy is more than a form of government, it is primarily a mode of associated living, of conjoint communicated experiences”.

Democracy is a way of life where problems are solved through argument, discussion, deliberation, persuasion and transaction of views instead of dictation, coercion, violence, distrust and conflict. It is an order of social relationships among individuals dedicated to the promotion of the individual’s well being keeping personal interests in abeyance.

It is an order in which every individual gets limitless opportunities to blossom according to his/her potentialities and in which power and responsibilities are shared on a mutual basis without any confrontation and conflict.

According to Prof. Seeley, “Democracy is a form of government in which everyone has a share.” Therefore in the business of government everybody is equally an actor or player. The will of people is well recognized and given primacy.

Educational Implications :

There is an inseparable connection between democracy and education. Democracy cannot be thought of in segregation from the spectrum of education. It has been admitted on all hands that the sinew of democracy depends upon the character and intelligence of all its citizens.

John Dewey, the votary of democratic education spells out succinctly, “The devotion of democracy to education is a familiar fact. A government resting upon popular suffrage cannot be successful unless those who govern and obey their governors are educated”.

Further, Bernard Shaw mentions the value of education in a democracy. “Democracy implies election of the corrupt few by the ignorant many. Therefore, education is the major means to enrich the strengths and overcome the weaknesses of the people. It is also a means for the widespread diffusion of democratic values”. Radhakrishnan commission (1948-49) said, “Education is the great instrument of social emancipation, by which democracy establishes, maintains and protects the spirit of equality among its members”.

It is crystal clear that democracy can function properly only if all its citizens are properly educated. Democracy should provide aims to education and thus, principles of democracy should reflect in the aims, curriculum, methods of teaching, administration and organisation, discipline, the school, the teacher etc.

Aims in Democratic Education :

Education in a democracy is meant not for a microscopic minority but for a macroscopic majority. It should be broad-based embracing all the ingredients of philosophy, psychology, sociology, biology etc.

The main aim of education in a democracy is to produce democratic citizens who can not only understand objectively the plethora of social, political, economic and cultural problems but also form their own independent judgement on these complicated problems.

It must inculcate in them the spirit of tolerance and ignite the courage of convictions. It must aim at creating in them a passion for social justice and social service. It must equip in them with the power of judgement, scientific thinking and weighing the right and the wrong.

Education aims at enabling the pupils to be social minded human beings capable of managing their own affairs and living with others adequately. It enables them to realize their hidden potentialities fully, for a fully developed person can contribute his/her bit to the success of democracy.

Prof. K.G. Saiyidain viewed that education must be so oriented that it will develop the basic qualities of character which are essential for the functioning of democratic life. These qualities are passion for social justice a quickening of social conscience, tolerance of intellectual and cultural differences in others, a systematic of the critical intelligence in students, cultivation of a love for work and a deep love for the country.

The Secondary Education Commission (1952-53) have spelt out the following aims of democratic education:

(i) Democratic Citizenship:

In orders to foster democratic citizenship, education should aim at the following:

(a) Clear Thinking:

Education should aim at developing capacity for clear thinking which entails power of discrimination of truth from falsehood.

(b) Clearness in Speech and Writing:

It is needed for free discussion, persuasion and better exchange of ideas among people.

Education should aim at nourishing the art of living with the community which requires the qualities like discipline, co-operation, social sensitiveness and tolerance.

(d) Sense of True Patriotism:

It takes three things which are:

(i) A sincere appreciation of the social and cultural achievements of one’s country,

(ii) a readiness to recognize its weaknesses frankly,

(iii) a resolve to serve it to the best of one’s ability and

(iv) to subordinate one’s interests to the broader national interests.

(e) Development of Sense of World Citizenship :

Education seeks to develop in children a sense of universal brotherhood of man and develops an awareness in them that they are not the citizen of one’s own country rather citizens of the world. All are members of a global world just like one family.

(ii) Improvement of Vocational Efficiency :

The second aim of our educational system is the improvement of vocational efficiency which includes creation of right attitude to work, promotion of technical skills and efficiency.

(iii) Development of Personality :

The third aim is the development of personality which includes discovering of hidden talents, cultivating rich interests in art, literature and culture necessary for self-expression and assigning a place of honour to the subjects like art, craft, music, dance and hobbies in the curriculum.

(iv) Training in Leadership:

A democracy cannot run smoothly without efficient and effective leadership. Therefore, it is one of the important aims of democratic education that it should train an army of people who will be able to assume the responsibility of leadership in social, political, economic, industrial or cultural fields. Besides, they are required to acquire skills in the art of leading and following others and to discharge their duties efficiently.

The National Education Association, U.S.A. (1977) has stated the following four groups as the main purposes of education:

(i) The Objectives of Self-realization:

Obtaining an inquisitive mind, ability in speech, reading, writing, arithmetic, seeing and hearing, acquiring the necessary knowledge regarding good health, formation of healthy habits, acquiring healthy means of recreation, utilization of leisure-hours, developing aesthetic interest and character.

(ii) Objectives of Human Relationships :

Respect for humanity, friendship, co-operation, courtesy, polite behaviour, appreciation of family life, skill in family management and establishing democratic relationship in family.

(iii) Objectives of Economic Efficiency:

Acquiring skill in chosen occupations, knowledge on different occupations, choice of one’s own vocation of life, maintaining one’s vocational skill occupational efficiency, occupational adjustment, maintaining one’s economic system of life properly etc.

(iv) Objectives of Civic Responsibility :

Understanding various social processes, to be tolerant, performing duties of a citizen, faith in social justice and democratic principles, abiding of law making correct judgement, development of world citizenship etc.

Curriculum :

Since democratic education absolutely favours maximum individual development, curriculum in a democracy should be flexible so that it can cater to the diverse tastes and temperaments, aptitudes and abilities, needs and interests of the pupils.

It seeks to stimulate thought and creative abilities of children. It should be broad-based which includes totality of experiences that a pupil receives through manifold activities undertaken inside the school and beyond it.

Further, it is essential that democratic curriculum should take into account the local conditions and environmental demands. Social element is greatly emphasised in it. In other words, curriculum should be tempered with social outlook and temper. There should be a provision for including vocational skills in democratic curriculum. Above all, curriculum should be constructed on the basis of the principle of integration.

It should not be separated into fragmented parts. It should be differentiated at a later stage to suit to the diverse interests, attitudes, aptitudes and abilities of the pupils. Moreover, it should be flexible and dynamic to suit to the changing reeds and times.

Different subjects are prescribed for democratic curriculum which is as under:

(i) Natural Sciences as physics, chemistry and biology for clear understanding of physical environment.

(ii) Social sciences as history, political science, civics, geography, economics, sociology, anthropology etc. for understanding society, social forces and social milieu.

(iii) Study of art, language, ethics, philosophy, religion for training the emotions of pupils and acquainting them with the aims, ideals and values of human life.

(iv) Vocational subject including craft to enable children to be self-reliant by becoming vocationally efficient.

Besides, hygiene, agriculture, mother tongue, native industries, practical mathematics and other languages should find a niche in the democratic curriculum.

Methods of Teaching :

Since democratic education de-emphasizes excessive mechanization and indoctrination. It encourages pupil’s participation in teaching learning process. It provides ample scope to think and reflect.

Therefore, democratic trend gives rise to a host of modern and dynamic methods of teaching such as learning by doing, heuristic, the laboratory and experimental method, project method, Dalton plan, Montessori method, socialized techniques, seminars, symposiums, discussions, problem solving, group work etc.

In the above techniques, emphasis is given on pupil’s active participation, initiative, enquiry, interests, judgement power and independent thinking. Teacher no longer instructs; he guides, directs and encourages pupils to explore the vast repertoire of knowledge in the deep sea of education.

Discipline in Democracy :

Democracy ensures discipline through co-operative activities of children. Problem of discipline does not arise in a democratic school. True discipline docs not consist in trite phrases like sit still, keep quiet and do as you are told; rather it consists in the control by the rational self. It is self-discipline or spontaneous discipline which comes out of the child’s involvement in different activities.

It is not external, rather internal, inner and thus self-imposed. It is a discipline from within and is based on the pillars of love, sympathy, co-operation and human relationship. Self discipline is the essence or core of democratic living. Discipline in democratic education is based on the conviction of doing right thing in the right manner and at the right moment.

There are a number of self-governing units in the institution such as students’ union, students’ committees, students’ councils, parliament etc. which ensure participation of children and help them realise the need of obeying rules. Moreover, they feel that they are members of different societies of the school and think that the rules they have to follow are their own and are made for their own benefits.

This feeling leads them to accept the school discipline gladly without any resentment. This is truly self- discipline in a free environment which is the essence of democracy. Conscience plays a role in the emergence of true discipline.

Role of Teacher in a Democracy :

Success of a democracy depends largely on the teacher—his/her outlook, attitude and way of life. He has to manipulate the environment and make use of all opportunities to enrich and experience of the pupils and to ensure their all-round development of personality. He/she is not a dictator or autocrat, but a friend, philosopher, stage-setter, guide and a vigilant supervisor. He/she does not interfere but co-operate.

He/she provides ample freedom, love and sympathy to pupils. He/she is objective—free from any form of prejudices and favouritism. He/she maintains a co-ordial relation with the community. Lastly, he/she practices democratic principles in his own life.

Therefore, in a democratic system, the teacher occupies an important place as he/she is the best medium for spreading democratic feelings and ideas in the school and society. He is an agent of change and a facilitator of democratic culture in the school.

School Administration and Management in a Democracy :

In democratic school administration and management teachers should be given ample freedom in framing or planning the policy of the school, in organizing activities, in preparing curriculum, in selecting methods of teaching, in conducting research and in making innovations in teaching and education. There prevails a co-ordial relationship between the teachers and taught and between the teachers and administrators.

If there happens a tug of war between the administrator and teacher, it mars the conducive atmosphere of the institution. As such, co-operative spirit raises the morale of an institution. It is desirable that democratic administration should eschew extreme concentration of power, the unshared responsibility, regimentation of authority and unrestrained freedom.

Teacher’s contribution is highly praised in democratic education. The entire atmosphere of school is thrilled with scent of democratic principles. Ultimately, this situation helps the growth of individuality of its stake-holders—students.

Role of School :

School should litter with democratic principles. It is the democratic environment which is congenial for the full-flowering of human personality. The school should provide full scale freedom to all pupils to grow under the heavy weight of democracy. Equality of treatment and opportunity should be the rule of the institution. The school should help every individual pupil to be disciplined, creative and adaptable.

The school should act as a replica of community where democratic ideals are not only taught theoretically but are practically done through its multifarious activities. Ross aptly says, “Schools ought to stress the duties and responsibilities of individual citizens. They ought to train pupils in a spirit of cheerful willing and effective service. They should teach citizenship directly. Everywhere there should be a spirit of team work. School is a prepared environment in which child may best blossom”.

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Education and Democracy

Martha Minow

Anna Deavere Smith, American actress, playwright, and professor, once said , “Art convenes. It is not just inspirational. It is aspirational. It pricks the walls of our compartmentalized minds, opens our hearts and makes us brave.” In that spirit, can we “prick the walls of our compartmentalized minds” and bring heart and courage to reflections on education and democracy? Democratic governance in societies around the world faces serious challenge today. Education sits at the crossroads of the information revolution and widening inequalities. The frailties of education increase the fragility of democracy. Strengthening each is critical to the other.

What steps move toward strength, and what steps instead make matters worse?

Democracy is hard work, and often produces poor policies. Playwright George Bernard Shaw was not stretching the truth when he had one of his characters say , “Democracy substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few.” The work of self-governance takes time, produces conflicts, and leaves us with few to blame but ourselves. So, it “ is the worst form of Government except all those other[s]. ”

On top of it all, it’s difficult to keep a democracy. Elections can be rigged. Politicians can take choices away from the voters. And the people can be tempted to surrender their power — by failing to vote or by voting for tyrants. Only 4.5% of the world’s populations live in full democracies, and even in those nations, self-governance faces rising gains by authoritarian leaders in Venezuela, Poland, Hungary, the Philippines, and, some would say , the United States.

The founders of the United States understood that “ an ignorant people cannot remain a free people and that democracy cannot survive too much ignorance. ” The American movement for “common schools” initiated in the 1830s sought to promote political stability, equip more people to earn a living, and enable people to follow the law and transcend differences in religion and background. Yet we are far from embracing this ideal as a guide for practice in the United States. As initially advanced, the common school ideal excluded enslaved people and children with disabilities. After the Civil War — and even today — public school systems still often divide students by race and class in practice.

A sustained legal strategy attacking legally mandated racial segregation in schools yielded official victory in 1954. But this also triggered resistance, and, despite some successes, massive racial separation persists in American schools. According to work done by Jennifer L. Hochschild and Nathan Scovronick , of this country’s 5,300 communities with fewer than 100,000 people, at least ninety percent were white at the turn of this century. In large urban districts, nearly seventy percent of the public students were nonwhite, and over half were poor or nearly poor. In some communities , this pattern has continued to worsen. Disparities in per-pupil expenditures further reflect the sharp differences in local wealth because most of the country funds schools based on local property taxes. Although a majority of Americans report that school integration is a good idea, a majority also agree that “ we shouldn’t do anything to promote [it] .” One commentator reports that now we live in an era of “hoarding” by upper middle-class families — those in the top twenty percent of income — who have used zoning laws, local control of schooling, college application procedures, and unpaid internships to pass their opportunities onto their children while making it harder for others to break in.

As a result, it is fair to ask whether we are holding up the ideal, so well stated by John Dewey , that schools should “see to it that each individual gets an opportunity to escape from the limitations of the social group in which he was born, and to come into living contact with a broader environment”? Controversial policy reforms would increase educational opportunities for disadvantaged students, but there is little political will for paying teachers more to teach in schools in poor neighborhoods, making higher education truly affordable, ending exclusionary residential zoning, and replacing reliance on local property taxes with state-wide or national redistributive financing.

To work, democracy needs effective schools that do even more than instruct students in the value and institutions of a democratic society (though this would be a good start, given that in 2014 only 36% of Americans could name the three branches of government ). Schools can cultivate habits and skills of taking initiative, showing respect, listening, and controlling emotions in the face of disagreement. Schools can help individuals take the perspective of others and learn to assess and organize information. These capacities are presumed by democratic governance, but children are not born with these abilities. Nor are they born with knowledge of what life is like under fascism or autocracies. Students can learn by doing: learn to use the tools of democracy in their classrooms, debate controversial issues, and practice disagreeing with respect. Schools can trust young people to follow their own interests, to take responsibility, and to take up governance of their own classrooms and lives. Civics education with these features leads to greater political engagement, voting , and higher degrees of acceptance toward people of different backgrounds .

At this moment, the distance between these ideals and aspirations much less actual practices around the country is enormous. A global study found that few millennials object to autocracy; only 19% of American millennials surveyed report that a military takeover would be illegitimate if the government is incompetent. Not many young people may know how following a worldwide economic depression, people in Italy and Germany turned to fascism in the 1930s and gave power to Mussolini and to Hitler . Mussolini and Hitler appealed to racism, fanaticism, and fear — and created global violence, mass killings, and destruction of communities and democratic ideals. A ray of hope for democracy: survey research suggests that people are much more willing to deliberate than prior research suggested, and those most willing to deliberate are exactly those turned off by standard, polarized, interest group politics. If the conventional avenues for participation can involve more opportunities for deliberation, many who are disengaged and disaffected might join in the work of self-governance.

Digital resources offer both promise and risks for education, for democracy, and for their connections. The Internet, social media, and search engines bring much of the world’s knowledge within reach of more people than ever in human history. Information — and disinformation — are plentiful and a few keystrokes away. It is more difficult for repressive regimes to keep information out of people’s reach. The architecture of the Internet also enables people with little cost to find others with similar interests, to share and spread information and views, and to recruit others because it facilitates one-to-many communication . These features are exemplified by the work of MoveOn and Breitbart News — and also by terrorist recruitment and sexual predators online. Arab Spring and public protests in Turkey indicate the power of the Internet to promote democracy but authoritarian governments have also found the Internet useful for surveillance, intimidation, and purging opposition . Research suggests that some individuals tune out of politics with the help of social media and internet entertainment , but here the internet simply joins many opportunities for people to avoid political engagement. Both education and democracy are fragile unless people desire — and fight for — political participation, knowledge, debate, critical reasoning, and freedom, whether in governance of their societies, schools, or design of the Internet.

Education and democracy both enhance human freedom but require rules and structure to work. Both need ground rules. Neither can work amid untrammeled violence, disrespect, and lying. Formal rules and informal norms can guide people to assess claims and bolster intolerance of intolerance. Practicing the predicates of education and democracy — the norms of respect and truth — these are the tasks pricking the walls of our compartmentalized minds, opening our hearts, and making us brave.

This post is based on remarks given at Sarah Lawrence College.

On the Limits of ADA Inclusion for Trans People

A.D. Sean Lewis

Response To:

Bending Gender: Disability Justice, Abolitionist Queer Theory, and ADA Claims for Gender Dysphoria by D Dangaran

Civil Suits by Parents Against Family Policing Agencies

Alexa Richardson

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Published: 14 November 2017

‘Democracy’ in education: an omnipresent yet distanced ‘other’

Ashley Simpson 1 &
Fred Dervin 1

Palgrave Communications volume 3 , Article number: 24 ( 2017 ) Cite this article

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Language and linguistics

A Correction to this article was published on 12 December 2017

This article has been updated

Like many concepts and notions used in various subfields of education, the idea of democracy is both floating and polysemic. It can also be a conveniently loose term that can be used by some to position themselves above others and to ‘teach them’ lessons about how to ‘do’ democracy, often creating unjustified hierarchies and moralistic judgements. Based on Mikhail Bakhtin’s concepts of 'authoritative discourse and internally persuasive discourse', this article examines how the contested idea of democracy is constructed and negotiated at a key International Conference on democratic education. Excerpts from talks given at the conference serve as case studies in this paper, without the intention to generalise about discourses of democracy in education. The results hint at uncritical attempts, often based on pathos, to totalise and generalise ‘democracy/the democratic’ especially within discourses on ‘democratic schools’. Such discourses can contribute to cultural othering and stereotyping, as well as, simplistic assumptions about how ‘democracy’ functions and comes-into-being. They can also help the utterer hide their sentiments. Thus, the aim of this paper is to deconstruct an essentialised and somewhat empty vision of democracy discourse in education. The fact that the idea of ‘freedom’ is often used as a synonym for ‘democracy’ during the conference is also discussed.

Developing social and civic competence in secondary education through the implementation and evaluation of teaching units and educational environments

Interpreting public policy dilemmas: discourse analytical insights

The politics of higher education: the European Higher Education Area through the eyes of its stakeholders in France and Italy

Introduction: democracy and heteroglossia.

Note that all excerpts within the chapter are verbatim, without any attempt to correct them.

‘Democracy’ and ‘education’ are always seemingly joined by the connective ‘and’—to refer to John Dewey’s ( 1916 ) publication ‘Democracy and Education’. Scholars, policy-makers, politicians and educators often assume the word ‘democracy’ follows ‘education’, and/or vice versa. However, consideration needs to be played to the wider social, political and linguistic interrelationships of how ‘democracy’ and ‘education’ are understood and how ‘democracy-comes-into-being’ in the specific context of education (Joas, 2000 ; Howlett, 2013 ).

Apple ( 2014 ), like many other commentators (e.g., Ball, 2007 , 2009 ), drawing on the neoliberalisation of education systems, notes how increased privatisation, competition, marketization, combined with ‘standards-driven’ procedures and measures have become ingrained within educational policies throughout the world. Apple ( 2011 , 2014 ) observes how schools, pupils, educational policies, and, knowledge have become ‘commodified’. He also argues that the forces of neoliberalism manifest through processes of disarticulation and misarticulation whereby hierarchised and hegemonic metadiscourses function ideologically in distorting meanings and representations (ibid). In this sense, words such as ‘democracy’ and ‘justice’ are constantly refracted by discursive, social, and ideological forces which shift how ‘democracy’ and ‘justice’ are continually represented and understood (ibid).

The forces of neoliberalism in education have resulted in perceptions of educational choice such as in ‘free schools’, ‘academies’, and other forms of decentralised schooling that have distorted perceptions of ‘public’ (state) and ‘private’ education (West, 2014 ; Hicks, 2015 ). At the same time, for instance, ‘democracy’ and ‘citizenship’ have become part of national curricula, teaching syllabi, teacher training resources and programmes, as well as, policy documents—seemingly, we are all ‘democratic citizens’ (Biesta, 2011 ). Simultaneously, the so-called ‘alternative education movement’ has positioned itself as an alternative to the neoliberalisation of education through, for instance, ‘democratic schools’ (Dundar, 2013 ; Korkmaz and Erden, 2014 ).

‘Democratic education’ and/or ‘democracy in education’ may encompass a number of ‘buzzwords’ and metadiscourses such as ‘multicultural education’ (Peters-Davis and Shultz, 2015 ), ‘intercultural education’ (Clark and Dervin, 2014 ) and ‘citizenship education’ (Biesta, 2015 ). As a result, some of the ‘meanings’ associated to, and generated within, ‘democratic education’ and ‘democratic schools’ can be somewhat ambiguous and contradictory (Woodin, 2014 ). As such, the multiple, varied and differing translations of ‘democratic values’ (such as equality and human rights) mean one must pay attention to the symbolic, representative and discursive functions of ‘democracy’ (Laclau, 2005 ).

Mikhail Bakhtin’s ( 1975 , 1981 ) concept of heteroglossia can be useful to examine these functions. Heteroglossia refers to the fact that one’s own utterances always contain ‘another’s speech in another’s language (Bakhtin, 1981 , p 324)—the other[s]-in-the-self are articulated through the discourses we utter. Heteroglossia can thus be understood as the constant refraction and metamorphoses of utterances within one’s speech (Bakhtin, 1981 ). Thus, one’s speech can never entirely be ‘one’s own’ (ibid). In this sense, heteroglossia can mark the negotiation of the self and other[s] through the refracted interplay and performativity of multiple and varied discourses (Schiffrin et al., 2010 ). It is through the constant interaction between and within discourses which can engender meanings that can condition others (Bakhtin, 1981 ). Bakhtin adds that ‘all utterances are heteroglot’ in that they function symbolically through indexing representations within discourse (Bakhtin, 1981 , p 428).

The interplay and performativity between sign-signifier-signified offers a way of understanding the representative and symbolic functions of discourses in engendering social meanings and identities (Hall, 1993 ). As Barthes explains, ‘the signified is the concept, the signifier is the acoustic image (which is mental) and the relation between the concept and the image is the sign (the word, for instance), which is a concreate entity’ (Barthes, 1972 , p 112). In this sense, the meanings of words (‘democracy’ in this paper) are not fixed in one singular or ‘objective’ way (Hall and Du Gay, 1996 ). It is important to note the influence discourse has on the constant instability and displacement of discursive concepts such as ‘democracy’, notwithstanding, the inherent antagonisms found within ‘democratic values’ (Mouffe, 2000 , 2009 ).

Two aspects of Bakhtin’s 'The speaking person in the novel' ( 1981 ), on which we focus in this article, is authoritative discourse and internally persuasive discourse. Authoritative discourse, as described in the (1981) English translation is described as discourses whose meanings have been fixed and allow no space for neither contestation nor interrogation (e.g., the authority of religious dogma) (Bakhtin, 1981 ). Authoritative discourse can function as a taboo as it ‘commands our unconditional allegiance’ (Bakhtin, 1981 , p 343). Taken from the glossary of the English version of the book, internally persuasive discourse is described as discourse, which is accentuated and reaccentuated by ‘one’s own’ gestures and accents within discourse (Bakhtin, 1981 ), though, Bakhtin’s concept of heteroglossia reminds us that both authoritative discourse and internally persuasive discourse are contained within the discourses of the self and others (ibid).

Many quotations/citations have focused on the ‘opposition’ of authoritative discourse and internally persuasive discourse (Skidmore, 2016 ). As Wardekker ( 2013 ) shows [an]other’s discourse is present in both authoritative and internally persuasive discourse—just because a discourse may be authoritative does not mean authoritative discourses are untouched by the forces of heteroglossia. We argue that Bakhtin himself would not agree with the idea that authoritative discourses and internally persuasive discourses are uttered and/or written in the form of a binary opposition. Discourses can be simultaneously authoritative and internally persuasive.

Basing our discussion of what we consider to be simultaneous aspects in Bakhtin’s work, authoritative discourse and internally persuasive discourse, we use excerpts and images taken from the International Democratic Education Conference (IDEC 2016). The annual conference (year of creation: 1993) brought together a number of different people, from academics and teachers, to activists and ‘gurus’ of the so-called ‘democratic education movement’. The discourses shared at the conference under review offer a rare insight into discourses frequently uttered in education about democracy in education and offer a lens to look into how utterances on ‘democratic schools’ and ‘democratic education’ manifest into deeper logics and meanings.

Discourses of democracy as a way of hiding sentiments

Our interpretation of Bakhtin’s concepts of authoritative discourse and internally persuasive discourse, is that discourse can simultaneously be authoritative and internally persuasive (Bakhtin, 1975 , 1981 ). In this sense, a discourse can be totalising and exert power over us (through reproducing customs, traditions, ignorance etc.), yet, be constituted by intersubjective manifestations and differences (such as differing intersectionalities of multiple identity markers) whose content is open to discursive argumentations and contestations (Bakhtin, 1975 , 1981 ). In a sense, discourses on ‘democracy/the democratic’ can hold a metadiscursive ideological grip over us whilst enabling to reconstruct differing possibilities. In this sense, ‘democracy’ contains inherent discursive antagonisms and contradictions whereby the sign of ‘democracy’ is susceptible to influences from the social heteroglot (Bakhtin, 1975 , 1981 ) (including; discourses/ power/ideologies) resulting in a constant metamorphoses of the sign whilst maintaining a symbolic signified (Barthes, 1972 ). As we shall see in the excerpt below, the multivoicedness of the speakers’ utterances, and of ‘democracy’, is illuminated to show potentially hidden sentiments which lie behind his/her utterances.

Excerpt 1 is taken from one of the keynote speeches at IDEC 2016. The speaker, reminiscing his time as a student, attended a ‘democratic school’ and has worked professionally in and with ‘democratic schools’ in the United Kingdom. In the excerpt he reflects with the audience on a basic issue: the potential embedment of democratic cultures in schools.

Excerpt 1. IDEC 2016 Keynote speech (i) ‘Shifting the future of education: can you embed democratic cultures in any school’?

For the purposes of this paper we only show the opening stages of the speakers’ presentation. The presentation lasted for 19 min and it was not necessary to transcribe all of the contents for our study.

So, can you embed democratic cultures in any school? That is the question. Can I just see a show of hands.

That’s the question. Who says ‘yes’?

[looks at the audience]

Can you embed democratic practices in any school?

[participants who agree with the statement raise their hands]

Yes. Do you think you can?

And who thinks no you can’t?

Interesting, so most people think maybe you can. I’m going to talk about that today. But I started thinking

when I sat down for the keynotes yesterday, okay, so if we are thinking about whether we can embed democratic

cultures in state schools and in in any school, can you do a keynote speech at an IDEC conference without a set of

powerpoint slides and without just talking the whole time. Because if you can’t do that you definitely cannot

Embed democratic cultures in any school. So I’m going to try it. And this is the test.

[Audience applaud]

We’ll see if it works [laughs] and partly it’s going to rely on you guys. So first, I just want to start thinking about

this. What, who …who in this room thinks that every child should have an access to education please stand

up now. Should every child have access to education?

[The audience participants stand up]

Okay. And if you think, and if you think that, that access to that education should be free can you give me that

you know, that international money symbol

[Keynote speaker makes a gesture with their hands that is copied by the conference audience]

[Keynote speaker laughs]

And if you think whilst they are having this free education they should have their rights respected in accordance

with the UN convention

[Keynote speaker makes a gesture with both hands in the air which is copied by the conference audience]

Yeah. I mean that’s what I thought. [laughs] and, and from my take on this if you, if you think that then we

have to realistically look at embedding democratic cultures in every school. Because a democratic culture in my

mind is the only way that students can have their rights fully respected within education and I think every child

has a right to that and every child is not in one of the democratic schools that many people in this room are

privileged to be part of.

As asserted earlier, the conference participants appear to be part of one community that shares similar ideas about democracy in education. What the speaker does here is to verify that this is the case. In other words, by asking the entire audience to share what they think, the speaker wants to ensure common understanding—and thus, implicitly, belonging to this same community of discourse on democracy in education. Let us examine the way the speaker leads her/his audience to ‘agree’ with her/him.

The Excerpt starts with a question from the keynote speaker, ‘can you embed democratic cultures in any school?’ (line 1), the speaker then performs a speech repair when repeating the question by uttering on line 4, ‘can you embed democratic practices into any school’? In conversations speech repairs can show hidden sentiments/meanings behind utterances (Hayashi et al., 2013 ), whereby repairs themselves can be utilised as a defensive discourse strategy to ‘repair’ the images of the self through re-working previous utterances in conversations (Benoit, in Holtzhausen & Zerfass, 2015 ). Here defensive discourse strategies such as speech repairs can mark facework (Lee, 2013 ). When the face is threatened, indicated in the excerpt by the audience’s reaction to the keynote speaker’s question on line 1 and by the Speaker’s re-wording of the question on line 4, the speaker is trying to make the face consistent with their utterances (Haugh and Chang, 2015 ). In this instance, the keynote speaker avoids confrontation with the audience by not repeating the word ‘culture’, instead, the speaker decides to use the word ‘practice’. Here ‘democracy/the democratic’ functions as authoritative discourse as ‘culture’ has seemingly become an uncomfortable taboo or an embarrassingly empty signifier for the speaker to discuss.

‘Democratic cultures’ re-enter the dialogue on line 11, here the speaker distances themselves from ‘democratic cultures’ through speech act exteriorisation whilst at the same time uttering ‘democratic cultures’. The speaker utters ‘Because if you cannot do that you definitely cannot embed democratic cultures in any school’ (lines 10 and 11), combined with laughter (line 12) and the utterances ‘and partly it’s going to rely on you guys’ (line 12) show how the speaker exteriorises ‘democratic cultures’ by deflecting the responsibility onto the audience. Simultaneously, the internal struggles of internally persuasive discourse are characterised by the speaker’s incoherence—the struggle of the others-within-the-self (Bakhtin, 1981 ). The symbolism of the speaker’s requirement for the audience to agree with their statements (see also excerpt 3 below) can show the omnipresence of ‘democracy/the democratic’ as authoritative discourse, yet, it can also show the struggles of how ‘democracy/the democratic’ come-into-being. The Other is simultaneously omnipresent in conjunction with, and, alongside ‘democracy/the democratic’. The iconography of ‘the international money symbol’ (line 16), the ‘UN convention’ (line 18) and rights of the child (line 19 to line 23) shows how these concepts/ideas/logics are ‘assumed’, emphasising the antagonistic and often contradictory manifestations of ‘democratic values’ (Rancière, 2007 ). Though, when faced by international others (an international conference audience), in the setting/context of [an]other, here the struggle of internally persuasive discourse (Bakhtin, 1975 , 1981 ) shown by discourses on ‘democracy/the democratic’ is an internal struggle between, and within, the others-within-the-self. This seems to show potentially hidden sentiments which lie behind her/his utterances.

‘Democracy’ as a convenient substitute for other contested words

This article puts the idea of dialogism at its centre. As asserted earlier, discourses of democracy are embedded in other discourses of democracy, well beyond a given context of utterance. Excerpt 2 is another keynote speech taken from IDEC 2016. While the first excerpt asked the basic question of the place of democracy in schools, this keynote speech looks into what the presenter refers to as Democratic Education 2.0. The keynote speaker is regarded as a ‘democratic education guru’ who runs their own ‘democratic school’ and has written and spoken on ‘democratic education’ around the world. In this excerpt the keynote speaker reflects on the similarities between democratic schools around the world.

Excerpt 2. IDEC 2016 Keynote Speech (ii) ‘Democratic Education 2.0—Changing the paradigm from a pyramid to a network’.

This keynote speech was 48 min long and it was not necessary for us to transcribe all of the speech. Instead we show the speech through two excerpts.

But if we look globally about all of the thousand schools [so-called ‘democratic schools’] all over the world and

we can see what is …. because a lot of people say democratic education it’s different. It’s different in Japan it’s

different in Korea it’s different in Europe. But I think we can say three four things that is in most of the schools.

And the most, what we will see is, first of all we see a democratic community in every school, the school run by a

democratic community, it’s different from school to school, but we have parliament meetings, we have

different meetings, we have different way of voting or consensus, we have a democratic process that runs the

school and all the schools. Another thing we can see in all the schools is pluralistic learning, what it mean, it

means that in all our schools the student[s] choose what to learn, how to learn, with whom to learn, and all these

things… we can find in most democratic schools. another thing we can see ……is dialogic ….

relationship, in all our schools we have a very close relationship between everyone to everyone. This is our goal.

We do not want a close relationship between teachers and students, we want between student to student, between

teacher to student we believe the connection and close relationship is very very important. And the fourth thing,

that does not exist in all of the democratic schools but in a lot of democratic schools, I call it democratic content,

what it means, when you look about the curriculum is a lot of time you adopt the national curriculum and the

national curriculum is very nationality and what, where, what we can see in democratic schools is the curriculum

comes from the point of view of human rights, of the right of the minority, the rights of the weak people, that’s

very very important when you study history and other things.

Excerpt 2 starts with the keynote speaker uttering contradictory utterances. He acknowledges the ‘diversity’ of ‘democratic schools’ by stating ‘it’s different in Japan, it’s different in Korea, it’s different in Europe’ (line 2 and line 3). The speaker then goes on to utter a number of generalisations and assumptions about ‘democratic schools’, such as, ‘what we will see is, first of all, we will see a democratic community in every school’ (line 4), ‘the school run by a democratic community’ (line 4 and line 5), ‘another thing we can see in all the schools is pluralistic learning (line 7), and, ‘in all our schools the student[s] choose, what to learn, how to learn, with whom to learn’ (line 8). The speaker utters these generalisations without problematising and explaining these concepts, such as, how is a ‘democratic community’ understood in ‘democratic schools’? How does the so-called ‘democratic community’ come-into-being? What is meant by ‘pluralistic learning’? None of these questions are problematised. Here, it is important to note, that throughout the excerpt the speaker is constantly reformulating previous utterances. For example, the speaker explains that ‘in all our schools the student[s] choose what they learn’ (line 8), later in the extract the speaker utters ‘when you look at the curriculum… you adopt the national curriculum’ (line 14), so how can students in democratic schools choose what to learn when (as the speaker utters) in most instances teachers are adopting a national curriculum? It can be fair to say, there is a considerable amount of ambiguity about how ‘democracy’ is uttered by the speaker.

It is also important to note the ways the speaker fixes, what the speaker calls, ‘democratic content’ (line 13). The speaker utters ‘democratic content’, then juxtaposes the national curriculum and ‘democratic schools’ by uttering ‘what we can see in democratic schools is curriculum comes from the point of view of human rights’ (line 15 and line 16). This utterance is preceded by the repair ‘what, where, what’ (line 15), and is followed by discourses which could potentially marginalise and ‘other’ (Dervin, 2016 ; Jackson, 2012 ; Holliday, 2011 ) peoples and/or groups. By 'othering' we mean discursive constructs which have been closely linked to the [re]production of power/knowledge in society especially in their ability to marginalise, stereotype and discriminate against peoples and/or groups through essentialised representations (Dervin, 2016 ). The speaker utters human rights in ‘democratic schools’ comes from ‘the rights of the weak people, that’s very very important when you study history and other things’ (line 16 and line 17). As McDonald ( 2016 ) shows, classroom practices and subject textbooks (such as History) can essentialise identities through the reproduction of white victimhood, thus, further marginalising and/or discriminating against one’s other[s]. Here the speaker’s labelling of the ‘weak’ (line 16) engenders discursive boundaries between ‘the strong’ and ‘the weak’. Such a dichotomy, reveals the coherently incoherence of discourses on ‘democratic schools’, yet these incoherencies are bound together by ‘democracy’ as an authoritative discourse—in the sense that ‘democracy’ is simultaneously assumed and generalised (as being present).

Following the presentation, the speaker invited audience participants to engage in a questions and answers session. Excerpt 3 is a short dialogue between a member of the audience and the keynote presenter about democratic schools '3.0, 4.0, 5.0'.

Excerpt 3. Questions and answers following IDEC 2016 Keynote Speech (ii) ‘Democratic Education 2.0—Changing the paradigm from a pyramid to a network’.

Speaker A—I got a question, when I saw the pictures about democratic schools they reminded me of my own

school about 50 years ago… what about schools without classrooms, without principals, without teachers

without curricula, without blackboards, like, democratic schools like 3.0, 4.0, 5.0.

Keynote speaker—…. I think from my point of view, my point of view, every school without is not interesting

me, every school without is not interesting me, not, continue what you want, I am very interested in

….ah…because I don’t need a school that is negative to someone, something. I want to see what you are doing, I

like the idea without [the] principal, I like the idea, but it’s not an idea, it’s half of the idea, what happened, how

to run the school and you need to bring the idea how to run the school without something that’s very very

interesting and for example, I can give you an example, when we say… education city we don’t say a

school without walls, I can say it, a school without walls, or without limited space, but we say it differently, we

say all the city is one big school and then people can ask me, ok, if all the city is one big school why don’t you

say all the world is one big school, and I have answered to this because I think that education in the future

need[s] to be ‘blend learning’, it needs to be face-by-face, and meeting, and using…web meetings. But this,

this is interesting me, yeah I want to see how we run the…schools that give much freedom to peoples.

Speaker A’s question in excerpt 3 (line 1 to line 3) combined with the response of the keynote speaker (line 4 to line 16) in addition to the utterances in excerpt 2, marks authoritative discourse—in part this is marked by the keynote speaker not uttering the word ‘democracy’ or ‘democratic’ in their response. Bakhtin’s concept of assimilation, whereby the speech of others can be detected in one’s own speech, whilst still remaining other (Bakhtin, 1975 , 1981 ), shows how ‘democracy’, or to be more specific, the ‘democratic’ in ‘democratic schools’ is continuously reaccentuated and displaced by, and within, discourse. Here, drawing on excerpts 3 and 4, the ways the keynote speaker and speaker A utter ‘democracy’/ ‘[the] democratic’ is uttered in a totalising and generalised manner fundamentally based upon assumptions around the presence and meaning of ‘democracy’. We argue, an example of the reaccentuation processes of authoritative discourse is the assimilation from ‘democracy/democratic’ to ‘freedom’ in the sense that the speaker is uttering ‘democracy/democratic’ but is actually describing notions of ‘freedom’. In excerpt 4 this is illustrated by the question from speaker A in excerpt 3 (line 1 to line 3), and the keynote speaker’s utterances on line 7 and line 14 whereby both speakers describe ‘freedom’ whilst uttering discourses about ‘democratic schools’. These excerpts show the totalising and generalising ways ‘democracy/the democratic’ is uttered but, also, the totalising logics which support utterances on ‘democracy/the democratic’—in this sense, these excerpts can show how ‘democracy/the democratic’ is a distanced other which can be uttered frequently without critique, in an omnipotent and omnipresent way. As Bakhtin ( 1975 , 1981 ) notes, when discourse functions in an omnipresent way it imparts to everything ‘its own specific tones and from time to time breaking through to become a completely materialised thing, as another’s word fully set off and demarcated (Bakhtin, 1981 , p 347)’, it is this omnipresent function of ‘democracy/the democratic’ which means that, in this context, discourses on ‘democracy/the democratic’ can simultaneously function as authoritative and internally persuasive discourse.

‘Democracy’ as pathos

In order to show the constant metamorphosing of ‘democracy/the democratic’ as authoritative discourse and internally persuasive discourse at the conference under review we show how ‘democracy/the democratic’ are used as discursive strategiesn in what follows.

By 'pathos' we mean discourses which invoke an emotional response through text and/or speech which are used as persuasion techniques for the purposes of argumentation (Marinelli, 2015 ). Here it is important to note that pathos can function as a metadiscourse in the ways it can shape public opinions and attitudes within a given context (Ho, 2016 ). Excerpt 4 is taken from the keynote speech entitled ‘The importance of democratic higher education and social systems in making democratic futures’. The speaker is a Japanese academic and the speech predominantly focuses on the Japanese context of education using the Japanese concept of ‘Hikikomori (social withdrawal)’ to justify the necessity of ‘democratic higher education’ in Japan and throughout the world. This excerpt offers an insight into the discourse strategies and discourse styles behind utterances on ‘democracy’ and ‘democratic schools’.

Excerpt 4. IDEC 2016 Keynote Speech (iii) ‘The importance of democratic higher education and social systems in making democratic futures’.

This keynote speech was 30 min long and it was not necessary for us to transcribe all of the speech. Instead we show the speech in a number of fragments.

Ah, so, why do they have such a fear for the other people? It explains a little bit, so this is another [form of]

statistics [the speaker shows Fig. 1 on the presentation]. So international statistics, it says… less than half

Taken from IDEC keynote presentation ‘The importance of democratic higher education and social systems in making democratic futures’

of Japanese youth are satisfied with the person. So comparing with the other statistics, Swedish, French,

American, German, British, Korean… majority of young people are satisfied with themselves, but less than

half of Japanese are like that.

[the speaker then moves to Fig. 2 on the presentation]

So I need to explain a little bit about Japanese social background.…..quite often in Tokyo we have a

very funny phrase at the railway station, so they say, ‘we apologise the coming train will be 2 min late’,

1 min late or something like that. So it maybe very strange for you. But in Japanese society they have to

apologise, a minute late or something like that, because it must be on time and it means efficiency is so important

in Japan, and, … it connected with the … next element, so standard is also very important, so very

efficiently things to do, we must to things in a very certain way… [the speaker coughs]…excuse me… and then,

another phenomena is going on, so now a days not only young people but also older …elder people, not

so old people, quite a few Japanese people … have a music device or a smartphone and so on so if you come

to Japan and you ride on the train maybe you will see many many Japanese people using digital devices and they

concentrate, in, on their world. So some scholar says studies self area they concentrate on their world. They do

not pay attention to outside of their persons world.

[the presentation continues]

Excerpt 4 starts with a number of generalised and essentialised utterances about peoples and ‘cultures’. By essentialism we mean discourses that present people’s behaviour as defined and constrained so stereotypes become the essence of who they are (Holliday, 2011 ; Dervin and Machart, 2015 ). The speaker argues that Japanese students are ‘less satisfied’ with their self than ‘Swedish, French, American, German, British, Korean’ (line 3 and 4) as juxtaposed to Japanese students (Fig. 1 ) and Japanese society (Fig. 2 ). At no time does the speaker problematise what it means to be ‘satisfied with myself’, or indeed, what is/are one’s self/selves. The self and satisfaction are assumed without critique. The speaker then goes on to utter a number of social and cultural stereotypes about Japanese society, such as, ‘the coming train will be 2 min late’ (line 7), that ‘efficiency is important’ (line 9), that Japanese people ‘have to apologise’ (line 8 and line 9), that many Japanese people use digital devices (line 13 and line 14), and, finally the speaker engenders imagery and symbolism of Japanese people being like robots ‘they concentrate on their world. They do not pay attention to outside of their persons world’ (line 15 and line 16). Here the context of the speaker’s presentation is built upon cultural essentialism and the use of exteriorising speech acts to engender boundaries, categories, and, labels between differing peoples. The speaker, as an other, ‘others’ Japanese ‘culture’/society though reproducing stereotypes on Japan.

[the speaker shows Fig. 3 on the presentation]

from that [Hikikomori] I want to share the story of one girl, Fumi is the name of the girl. So, … she

came to _____ she had bullying, she was okay about bullying, but she didn’t like the way of the school, so

everything is decided by the school and they have to compete with each other for academic marks, competition,

____ is 12 years old, she wrote an essay, so she doesn’t like this part and that part and she cannot understand this

way of doing things at school, she wrote an essay and she handed it to the principal. After she handed the essay

to the principal she decided to leave the school. But in Japan of course we ‘have a compulsory education’ [the

speaker actions quotation marks] so she left the school but there is no place for her to go. …by the society.

[the speaker shows Fig. 4 on the presentation]

So, … it is a very sad story about Fumi until that point. …but, Fumi’s story is not exceptional, we have

many Fumi in Japanese society. And actually, not only school refusing people but also many Japanese people

have a similar kind of experience so, … more and more young people are having a depression experience.

… young people experience wrist cutting, especially girls, and the biggest number of the death of young

people in their twenties is suicide, and … we had a, some indiscriminate killing, sometime they say they

cannot commit suicide, so they … did such a killing, so that … we had a very difficult situation.

Combined with the essentialised utterances of the speaker which we can see from the speakers’ utterances and from Fig. 1 and Fig. 2 , in the next section of the speech the speaker tells the story of a student in Japan to generate an emotional response between the speaker and the audience. By using Fig. 3 and Fig. 4 , in conjunction with the speakers’ utterances, the speaker uses the strategy of pathos to justify the importance and need of ‘democratic schools/democratic education’. Pathos, here can be understood as a discursive legitimation strategy whereby the speaker is legitimising their argument through an emotional narrative (Vaara, 2014 ). It is important to stress, as the authors of this paper we may agree with the speaker that overt competition in education may have a number of consequences, however, we would warn against overtly simplistic generalisations and assumptions about student bullying and student mental health especially when being used as a persuasion technique. The speaker assumes that ‘Fumi’ ‘was okay about bullying’ (line 18), although this may or may not be true, the speaker does not explain this any further. The speaker then continues the narrative of how Fumi was upset about the way the school was run, as a result Fumi gave an essay to the school principal and later left the school (line 18 to line 22). The speaker then engenders further boundaries through their speech act exteriorisation of Fumi’s story by making a moralistic judgement about the whole of Japanese society, the speaker utters ‘so she left the school but there is no place for her to go …. by the society’ (line 23). Here the afterthought ‘by the society’ indicates a repair mechanism in unplanned speech to reinforce the speakers’ argument through strategies of persuasion (Marinelli, 2015 ).

The speaker then shifts to Fig. 4 on the presentation. The speaker continues to make generalisations about Japanese society ‘we have many Fumi in Japanese society’ (line 24 and line 25), ‘young people experience wrist cutting’ (line 27) and this is continued throughout this section of the speakers’ presentation (line 24 to line 29). These utterances provide the pathos for the speaker to propose a so-called ‘counter-narrative’ to the ‘descriptions’ the speaker makes about Japanese education and Japanese society, Fig. 5 shows how ‘democracy/the democratic’ is utilised discursively to shape the audience’s perceptions about Japanese culture/Japanese society and mental health issues in Japan—as these components are juxtaposed to the omnipotent and omnipresent ‘democracy’ in the room.

‘Democracy/the democratic’ as pathos here functions as authoritative discourse (Bakhtin, 1975 , 1981 )—democracy is a distant yet present force hanging over the utterances of the speaker as it is juxtaposed (in a binary manner) to the Japanese context ‘described’—it becomes essentialised and stereotyped when generalisations and assumptions are uttered, yet, no one speaks out and critiques it. It becomes a taboo. In this sense, democracy is an example of authoritative discourse. Nietzsche reminds us though,

‘No one would consider a doctrine to be true just because it makes people happy or virtuous, with the possible exception of the darling ‘Idealists,’ who was enthusiastic over the Good, the True, and the Beautiful, and let all sorts of colourful, clumsy, and good-natured desiderata swim through their pond in utter confusion. Happiness and virtue are not arguments. But we like to forget (even thoughtful spirits like to forget) that being made unhappy and evil are not counter-arguments either’ (Nietzsche, 2002 , p 37).

Therefore, the very presence of ‘democracy/the democratic’ through its assimilation to ‘freedom’—characterised in Fig. 5 by the assumption that ‘freedom of study’ and in previous excerpts, the idea that if students are ‘free to choose what they learn, how they learn, with whom they learn etc.’ is a way to ‘get the self back’, as Nietzsche makes us consider, this is neither a counter-argument to competition in schools nor an argument supporting the notion that students who are ‘free to….’ are ‘satisfied’/ ‘happy’/ are able to ‘regain the self’. We are left with a number of unanswered questions, such as, what does it mean to be free? Who defines this freedom? Freedom for whom? With whom? By whom? How does freedom come-into-being?

The omnipresence of ‘democracy/the democratic’ in the speakers’ utterances in excerpt 4 means that ‘democracy/the democratic’ can be critiqued from within thus meaning that ‘democracy/the democratic’ can be simultaneously understood as authoritative and internally persuasive discourse (Bakhtin, 1975 , 2012). In this sense, democracy may function as a hegemonial concept whilst simultaneously marking the invocation of the subject by the discourse and a subjectivising inversion. Excerpt 4, along with Figs. 1 to 4 raises a number of potentially worrying perversions of the signs ‘democracy/the democratic’, as potentially generalised ‘cover-ups’ of mental health issues with simplistic ‘solutions’ on how to deal with such issues.

Discussion: discourse, heteroglossia and ‘democratic’ struggles

The 4 excerpts analysed in this article were selected for their representatively of the shared doxa about democratic education at the conference under review. They show potentially alarming trends in how ‘democracy’ is discussed in dialogues, generally within the specific context of a conference on democratic education. The following aspects were examined: discourses on democracy used to hide speaker sentiments, democracy and words such as freedom used as interchangeable and convenient synonyms, and, democracy as pathos. Bakhtin’s work served as a backbone to analyse these important phenomena.

As Mouffe ( 2000 , 2009 ) shows, ‘democratic values’ are inherently antagonistic and discourse in particular plays an important role in antagonistic social relations (ibid). Bakhtin’s concept of dialogism—and to be more specific, heteroglossia—offers a way to trace the discourses of the other-within-the-self (Bakhtin, 1981 , 1984 )—how one’s other[s] are socially and discursively interwoven within one’s speech. Bakhtin reminds us that,

‘The utterance is filled with dialogic overtones, and they must be taken into account in order to fully understand the style of the utterance. After all, our thought itself—philosophical, scientific, artistic—is born and shaped in the process of interaction and struggle with others’ thought, and this cannot but be reflected in the forms that verbally express our thought as well’ (Bakhtin, 1986 , p 92).

In this sense, it is important to acknowledge the ‘democratic others’ within ‘democracy/the democratic’—due to its instability and function as a floating signifier (Hall, 1993 ). ‘Democracy/the democratic’ can function as authoritative discourse, and be simultaneously critiqued and reaccentuated as internally persuasive discourse. Discourses on ‘democracy’ in ‘democratic schools’ are simultaneously authoritative and internally persuasive due to dialogism generally, and heteroglossia, specifically. Heteroglossia allows one to deconstruct and reconstruct one’s own utterances (Bakhtin, 1981 ).

Democracy, as we have shown in the excerpts, can function as authoritative discourse when distanced, generalised, stereotyped and tabooed. When democracy is ‘assumed’ it engenders mutually coexisting yet contradictory discourses which open up the possibility of critique and [re]accentuation—meaning that discourses can be simultaneously authoritative and internally persuasive.

The chosen excerpts have hinted at attempts to totalise and generalise ‘democracy/the democratic’ within discourses on ‘democratic schools’, whereby discourses on ‘democratic schools’ can contribute to cultural othering and stereotyping, as well as, simplistic assumptions about how ‘democracy’ functions and comes-into-being. In many instances discussed throughout this paper, speakers on democracy have ‘described’ notions of ‘freedom’—it is important to note that freedom and democracy are not the same thing—many speakers in this paper describe ‘freedom’, but democracy requires antagonisms and instability (Rancière, 2007 ), a contingency of force and power (Laclau and Mouffe, 2001 )—meaning that ‘democracy’ cannot be simply reduced to another sign or concept (such as freedom).

Many proponents of ‘democratic education’ seemingly focus on ‘freedom’ rather than ‘democracy’. As such, many advocates of ‘democratic education’ and ‘democratic schools’ seemingly fail to acknowledge the social and discursive struggles which are characteristic of how democracy comes-into-being. These include pluralistic antagonisms (Mouffe, 2009 ) (including discourses), therefore, the word ‘democracy’ cannot be simply replaced by the word ‘freedom’ nor can it be explicitly ‘explained’ through notions of ‘freedom’.

This paper has also hinted at some of the ‘deeper’ issues of ‘democratic education’ and ‘democratic schools’. ‘Democracy’ in the context of ‘democratic schools’ is often uttered as an objective and/or totalised ‘end’, or ‘assumed’ as being ‘present’, which in turn means, that ‘democracy’ is seemingly never internally critiqued or reflected upon. We argue, this is a potentially dangerous precedent whereby ‘democratic values’ are uttered to justify certain educational and/or social arguments rather, than, problematising what ‘democratic values’ mean and their relevancies for/in society. There is thus a need to shift towards democracy as something to be problematised rather than a mere simplistic answer. Bakhtinian dialogism represents a powerful tool to counter-attack such problematic and ethically questionable uses of the word in education and to make it less distanced.

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Simpson, A., Dervin, F. ‘Democracy’ in education: an omnipresent yet distanced ‘other’. Palgrave Commun 3 , 24 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-017-0012-5

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Experts worry that de facto single-person regimes in previous multiparty states (Russia, Turkey, Venezuela) and norm-defiance in existing democracies (Brazil, Hungary, the United States) signal a coming authoritarian age. Without examining the broader record, however, it is hard to know whether such tremors presage a global convulsion. A century’s worth of evidence (1920–2019) shows that contemporary democracies are sturdier than they look. Above all, high levels of economic development continue to sustain multipartism; OECD democracies have faced less risk than often intimated. Further, competition among political parties, regardless of national affluence, contains a momentum that even the most willful demagogues have had trouble stopping. These economic and institutional bulwarks help explain why democratic backsliding, which seems so portentous, has preceded democratic survival more often than breakdown. Even as executive aggrandizement and rancorous partisanship roil the world’s most venerable democracies, they are unlikely to produce new autocracies absent permissive material conditions.

E xactly a hundred years ago, in October 1922, Benito Mussolini began twisting Italy’s democracy into an icon of authoritarianism. The March on Rome that he and his Fascist Party staged that month convinced the king of Italy—fearing civil war—to hand the government to Mussolini, sending reverberations beyond Southern Europe. An early one was felt just a year later, when Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party tried to seize control of Bavaria and start a “German revolution” against the Weimar Republic. Their bid failed, but the resulting trial made Hitler a national figure in German politics.

Over the next two decades, what Samuel P. Huntington would later call the “first reverse wave” of authoritarianism would see nearly two-thirds of the world’s democracies placed under the bootheels of dictators and occupying armies. 1 The price of liberating at least some of these countries was a cataclysmic six-year conflict that killed more than seventy-million people, most of them civilians, and ended with the use of atomic weapons. For later generations, the titanic horror of the Second World War cast a grim light on the era leading up to it, when Mussolini, Hitler, and their followers had risen to power. The first reverse wave loomed as a dire testament to the ability of willful leaders to threaten freedom and peace.

About the Authors

Jason Brownlee is professor of government at the University of Texas, Austin, and the author of Authoritarianism in an Age of Democratization (2007).

View all work by Jason Brownlee

Kenny Miao is a doctoral candidate in government at the University of Texas, Austin.

View all work by Kenny Miao

The specter of democratic collapse now haunts a new century. The 2010s began with 116 electoral democracies in the world, according to Freedom House, and ended with 115, a modest net decline that belied significant disruptions in a dozen earlier multiparty systems. Alarming numbers of elected leaders were using coercion to stay in power. A prime example was Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who exploited a clumsy July 2016 coup attempt to launch a sweeping “crackdown on the political opposition, academia, media and civil society.” 2 Within two years, he would transform the once-ceremonial Turkish presidency into a potent executive office tailor-made for his brand of strongman rule. Other events of 2016 including the British vote to leave the European Union and the U.S. presidential election stunned professionals who made a living explaining world events.

Commentators and scholars soon placed Brexit, Donald J. Trump’s victory, and authoritarian leaders such as Erdoğan in a broader narrative of democratic decline. 3 Two months after Trump was inaugurated as U.S. president, the title story in the Atlantic was “How to Build an Autocracy.” The cover depicted Trump addressing a throng that stretched beyond the horizon. The 14 May 2018 issue of Time magazine carried a lead story titled “Rise of the Strongman,” with a cover showing Russian president Vladimir Putin looming above images of Erdoğan, Hungarian premier Viktor Orbán, and Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte. A few months later, in October, the Atlantic asked readers “Is Democracy Dying?” Last December the magazine declared “The Bad Guys Are Winning,” with the illustration showing a black-suited Putin strutting, Reservoir Dogs –style, with Erdoğan as well as presidents Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela, Alyaksandr Lukashenka of Belarus, and Xi Jinping of China.

Talk of an antidemocratic Zeitgeist echoed in the halls of academe. Some scholars saw a “wave of autocratization” threatening to engulf the world’s most venerable polities. 4 “If Trump wins this election in November,” said one political scientist in mid-2020, “democracy is gone.” 5 Even after Trump lost, however, the menace to democracy did not disappear, as the former president and swaths of his base embraced the fiction that the election had been stolen and a usurper sat in the Oval Office. 6

At the centennial of Mussolini’s putsch, it would be risible to ignore troubling parallels between the interwar epoch and our current era. Then and now, opportunists with no lasting fealty to democracy have weaponized elections to concentrate power in their own hands. Then and now, demagogues have stirred millions through naked appeals to prejudice and nativism. Then and now, office-seekers have celebrated the violence of the mob and the state to silence critics. No matter how much observers may disagree about the extent of these similarities, that the ugliest episodes of the 1920s and 1930s echo at all in the early twenty-first century is a cause for dismay and reflection.

Even as experts and laypersons reckon with these challenges, it is vital to note that historical analogies can mislead. 7 Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany are notorious because they were terribly exceptional. Countless egotists have aspired to emulate the Duce and the Führer, but few have come close. The fates of Italy’s liberal Parliament and the Weimar Republic warn against complacency, but at the same time, the value of their examples for decisionmakers who must navigate today’s waters should not be overestimated.

The present essay takes seriously what was previously inconceivable: the prospect that, across the global North and South, a slew of democracies will fall in the twenty-first century. We step back from recent examples to consider an expanse of historical and contemporary evidence—including an analysis of democratic breakdown and survival between 1920 and 2019. We conclude that, while democracies today are certainly under stress, the prognosis is generally positive. Affluent democracies (in which national wealth derives from industry rather than unproductive rents such as may be charged for oil or mineral extraction) remain very likely to endure as democracies. Notwithstanding a small set of outliers such as Turkey, electoral democracy in wealthy states looks set to survive. This inference fits a storied research tradition regarding the link between socioeconomic modernization and the stability of democratic rule. 8

A closer look at which democracies “backslid” in the early twenty-first century, and which cases broke down suggests that norm erosion, institutional gridlock, and other woes—while certainly troubling—are not portents of dictatorship. Democracy watchers should therefore keep their eyes on the socioeconomic conditions that have tamed the wild ambitions of would-be autocrats—or allowed their schemes to flourish.

Not With a Bang, but a Whimper

The 2000s and 2010s did not deliver a reverse wave of democratization, but the mode and setting of democratic breakdowns drew attention. 9 Most recent democratic breakdowns traced back to politicians who had been elected to run the executive branch rather than to uniformed coup plotters. The mechanism of breakdown was death by a thousand cuts. Erdoğan also tightened his hold in a country where relative material prosperity was supposed to stymie authoritarianism.

From the 1950s through the 1980s, when democracies fell, odds were that generals or colonels were responsible. While traditional military coups continue to threaten civilian rule (as in the cases of Egypt 2013, Thailand 2014, Burma 2021, and Burkina Faso 2022), civilian-led takeovers have eclipsed them. 10 Examples of other nonmilitary figures who have embedded themselves in power include Daniel Ortega, who is now in his fourth consecutive term as Nicaragua’s president, and Sheikh Hasina, who is enjoying her third successive term as the prime minister of Bangladesh.

While they have been behind many democratic breakdowns, civilian politicians have mostly eschewed overt autogolpes . The original “self-coup” artist was Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, who in the early 1850s turned the French Second Republic into the French Second Empire, promoting himself from France’s president to its emperor in the process. The German Enabling Act of 23 March 1933, Ferdinand Marcos’s 1972 declaration of martial law in the Philippines, and Alberto Fujimori’s 1992 seizure of legislative and judicial power in Peru are other notable cases. One day citizens are enjoying multipartism and civil liberties; the next morning they awake under dictatorship. The autocratic premiers and presidents of the twenty-first century have generally steered clear of anything that jolting. Preferring to showcase continuity, they hold regular elections, keep legislatures open (even if manipulated and curbed), and permit at least some rival parties to operate.

Because the new authoritarianism arises in stages behind a republican frontispiece, the emergence of rule by a single party or person can be gradual enough to have a “dangerously deceptive” quality. 11 The incumbent plays coy while spending years gradually shrinking the space for political competition. Observers both foreign and domestic may not reach consensus about what is happening until it is too late. 12 Democratic decline is not unidirectional, but the downward slope of backsliding can be both slippery and steep. One study found that more than two-thirds of democracies that backslid eventually underwent full breakdown. 13 Spotting such patterns in the past is far easier than tracking them in real time. Ortega bucked term limits to win reelection in 2011, with 62 percent of the vote, in a controversial but hotly contested race. 14 He then garnered implausibly high supermajorities in later polls. Erdoğan pulled off a slow-motion executive takeover in a country where economic development was supposed to have advanced too far to let democracy be unraveled in this way.

As of this writing in September 2022, democracies above the historical “Argentina 1975” threshold continue to appear safe from military coups. (The May 2014 coup in Thailand came close to defying the trend.) 19 Meanwhile, the stability that affluence was supposed to bestow did not extend to blocking takeovers by civilian chief executives. 20 Even bracketed as an “outlier,” the case of Turkey, and an incident of breakdown in the small nation of the Maldives, still mean that there can be no deterministic relationship between development and democratic survival. At the same time, however, a potent example—or even a handful of such instances—does not constitute a trend. From 2000 through 2019, democratic breakdowns still clustered in the bottom quarter of the PPP GDPpc range (73 percent of them happened below $6,602, which is less than half the Argentina 1975 threshold). In the absence of a more methodical examination, it is difficult to know whether Turkey is an outlier or a bellwether.

Midrange studies underline the importance of not overgeneralizing from high-profile cases and potentially misreading the threat to democracy. Kurt Weyland found that among thirty “populist” leaders in the Americas and Europe, only six had “suffocated democracy.” 21 When Robert Kaufman and Stephan Haggard studied the problem, they even set aside wealthy democracies, acknowledging that “outright reversions [to authoritarianism] are still virtually non-existent in developed countries.” 22

Conversely, as illiberal politics spreads—but few democracies succumb—multiparty governments may prove more likely to recover from backsliding than plunge into autocracy. Just four years after the Atlantic mused about Trump building an undemocratic regime and Time placed Duterte in the company of dictators, both men were out of office. Both figures still commanded influence in national politics. Trump denied his defeat and raised expectations for a fierce run at the White House in 2024. Duterte’s daughter Sara was elected vice-president of the Philippines in 2022, while another prominent scion—Ferdinand Marcos, Jr.—won the presidency with nearly 60 percent of the vote. Nonetheless, neither Trump nor Duterte had exceeded his mandate, and the respective elections that replaced them evinced robust multipartism.

It is not hard to imagine prosaic outcomes for other elected executives who have flouted democratic norms: Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro, Poland’s Jarosław Kaczyński, India’s Narendra Modi, and Hungary’s Viktor Orbán. 23 These individuals may harbor fantasies of emulating Erdoğan, but such fearsome schemes remain circumscribed by the very political systems they seek to corrupt.

The Empirics of Democratic Breakdown

Is Erdoğan’s Turkey a black swan or a canary in a coal mine? Comparative study may help us to find out. Only then can we reliably assess the risks posed by elected leaders who may harbor ambitions similar to Erdoğan’s, but who find themselves in different contexts. Our full dataset (5,563 country-years and 235 spells from 1920 through 2019) allows us to test the degree to which economic development protected democracy during times of creeping authoritarianism. Our key findings come from our linear-probability model. (This type of model is among the most widely used in the social sciences; for our main regression table, see the online appendix at https://bit.ly/3R25isA . ) As we ran the model, certain patterns emerged repeatedly. Reported results are not idiosyncratic; they denote enduring trends. We tested a range of competing hypotheses, and we used multiple measures of democracy to make sure that no findings depended on judgments made by a single coder or team.

The topline result is that patterns of democracy in the early twenty-first century show as much continuity as change—and they offer as much evidence for optimism as cause for concern. First, productive wealth (nonrent GDPpc) stands as a strong predictor of democratic breakdown and survival. For the average electoral democracy of the early twenty-first century, the compounded predicted probability of surviving (avoiding breakdown) for a generation (twenty years) rises as GDPpc goes up. At a GDPpc level of $1,000 per year, democracy has a slightly better than one-in-three chance of surviving. That probability improves to 60 percent at $5,000 GDPpc, reaches 75 percent when it is $10,000 a year, and enters the realm of virtual certainty (97 percent) at $20,000.

The tests also showed how the perils of the time between the two world wars compare with the current era. The data underscored just how fraught were the 1920s and 1930s. The overall risk of breakdown (whether by army coup or civilian takeover) during the interwar period was a statistically significant 2 percent higher per year, which translates, over a twenty-year span, into a 50 percent greater chance of a democracy ending at some point during that two-decade interval. All later eras, including the opening decades of the present century, have been more conducive to democratic survival. Such a claim may sound puzzling, given the rise in executive takeovers, but the data offer an explanation.

Democratic breakdown did not become more likely in the 2000s and 2010s, but its modality morphed. The annual likelihood of a military coup dropped nearly 1 percent (0.9 percent), a slight but statistically significant change. Meanwhile executive takeovers became 0.6 percent more probable. For the most part, these countervailing patterns washed each other out. Yet the greater peril that elected incumbents posed to democracies did not quite match the increased security those same governments enjoyed from coups. On balance, an electoral democracy has annually been 0.4 percent safer, on average, since 2000.

In summary, our analysis found substantial evidence of political continuities between the recent era and the postwar twentieth century. Development continued to be a powerful predictor of a country’s ability to sustain democracy. Conversely, to the extent that new hazards for democracy have emerged, their net impact on democratic survival has been nil. To understand how democracy could have remained relatively sturdy while democratic backsliding proliferated, we complemented our quantitative analysis with qualitative attention to the latest cases.

Democratic backsliding is still an emerging concept in the social sciences. In her seminal contribution on the subject, Nancy Bermeo defined backsliding as “the state-led debilitation or elimination of any of the political institutions that sustain an existing democracy.” 24 Subsequent researchers have been more successful at describing what backsliding looks like than they have been at establishing its relationship to regime changes, or even at agreeing on how to measure it.

Working with the same group of cases that we used in our long-range tests of democratic survival, we sought a measure of backsliding that would track incremental declines in the quality of democracy. To provide a continuous measure, we turned to data from the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Institute. The V-Dem data have been cited to back up some of the most prominent claims about democratic fragility. 25 By employing a V-Dem measure, we aimed to ensure that our analysis would not overlook instances of backsliding that a narrower method might miss. 26 We then examined how the population of “backsliders” overlapped with cases of democratic survival and breakdown. 27

Forty-seven electoral democracies (and fifty democratic spells) experienced breakdown or at least one period of backsliding under our measure (see the Table , which omits another 75 democratic countries that did not undergo breakdown or substantial backsliding during the two decades). By this count, countries with periods of backsliding slightly exceeded occurrences of democratic breakdown (30 to 28). What is remarkable, however, is how little the two phenomena coincided. In twenty cases (more than half of which were instances of executive takeover), democratic breakdown was not presaged by a backsliding period. By comparison, seven of the eight cases of the second column were executive takeovers, connoting the electoral road to single-person rule.

The last column solves the mystery of how multiple presidents and premiers can curtail local opposition but still not produce a global threat to democracy. As captivating it has been, the tale of backsliding preceding breakdown has been much less common than the story of backsliding—and recovery—within electoral democracies. Twenty-two countries had one or more democratic spells with backsliding but did not break down. This set of states accounts for more than two-thirds of the backsliders from 2000 through 2019. However portentous executive overreach and rancorous partisanship may have seemed at the time, they did not augur regime change.

Sources of Democratic Survival

Like most history buffs, students of democratic breakdown have been drawn to the most consequential figures and events. Confident conclusions also require studying the proverbial “dogs that did not bark,” the cases where the feared outcome failed to happen. For democracy this means considering periods of continuity, the “quiet times” which make no headlines but which are integral to any sound estimate of how often and under what conditions democracies end.

The preceding analysis supports three inferences: 1) Having national wealth that does not depend on oil rents strongly predicts democratic survival; 2) multipartism contains built-in defenses against authoritarianism; and 3) backsliding tends to roil electoral democracy without curtailing it. In sum, the main conditions that imperiled democracy after 1945 continue to pose the biggest risks, while the historic sources of democratic survival continue to offer the strongest safeguards.

The legacy of Lipset. The idea that higher national incomes sustain democratic governments remains one of the few lawlike regularities that comparativists have discovered in the political world. We uncovered hefty amounts of evidence supporting the insights of Lipset and his successors: For citizens of electoral democracies during the century after 1920, there was no more reliable guarantor of their political system than material prosperity.

These results indicate a robust probabilistic relationship between wealth and democratic survival. Electoral democracy has been nearly impregnable—although not invincible—in countries with GDPpc above the Argentina 1975 level. By comparison, the dynamics of lower-income states are less novel. In countries with less (non-oil) per capita wealth than Argentina had in 1975, democracy has been and still is highly susceptible to both coups and executive takeovers.

Hence, what sometimes appears to be a topsy-turvy dynamic on the surface displays profound continuities that accord with prior theory. The data strongly support the stabilizing effect that national wealth has on electoral democracy, even in the face of downturns in Moscow, Managua, and Dhaka. Meanwhile, the outlier, Erdoğan, has grabbed the spotlight but has proved a tough act to follow. In order to understand why, it is valuable to also consider the political dynamics that stop one party or person from monopolizing power.

The momentum of multipartism. For traditional coup-proofing, new democracies may have no better option than appeasing the military until civilian sovereignty becomes taken for granted. In the countries of postcolonial Africa, Asia, and Latin America, that process sometimes took generations, especially for fiscally constrained states that struggled to deliver essential goods while also placating the generals. When it comes to blocking executives from seizing total control, however, the situation is less bleak. Even the youngest electoral democracies have a potent defense mechanism: their own political pluralism, rooted in social constituencies and embodied by parties and candidates. This innate resistance to civilian autocracy is so fundamental that it often hides in plain sight.

The same context of multiparty competition that vested the chief executive with authority then becomes a built-in impediment to the incumbent’s ability to hold power indefinitely. Even a minimal procedural democracy will have leaders whose path to office was a competitive struggle for the people’s vote. (If no such struggle took place, then the regime is something other than a democracy.) A chief executive intent on installing authoritarianism must be not only willing but able to stop future electoral competition and stay in power even after a plurality of voters has soured on the executive’s rule.

Consolidating a single-party state can be a tall order in civilian-dominated political systems where large-scale state repression is off the table and voting remains the principal mechanism of assigning political power. In effect, the incumbent executive needs to build a coalition of elite and mass supporters large and potent enough to defeat the broad resistance that indefinite single-party rule is sure to provoke. The resisters will include not only rival parties, but also former backers of the incumbents who may once have cheered but who now balk at a full-on plunge into the authoritarian unknown.

The protean nature of “competitive authoritarianism” is a testament to the inertial power of multipartism. Christopher Carothers noted in 2018 that competitive authoritarianism tends to be a passing political situation—it moves toward pluralism or else autocracy—rather than a stable regime type. 28 Elections can be hotly contested even on a skewed playing field, and incumbents will struggle to stop the ballot from mandating the ebb and flow of power to and from the various parties. At the time of Carothers’s essay, more than half the original thirty-five competitive authoritarian regimes had moved out of that category, into electoral democracy, while less than a fifth (including Belarus, Cambodia, Cameroon, Gabon, Nicaragua, and Russia) established de facto single-party rule under an individual dictator.

In sum, when civilian politicians keep the army in its barracks—eschewing mass armed repression and preventing outright coups—these politicians will likely have no choice but to keep tussling in elections and partisan politics, without one figure or faction ever achieving permanent predominance. The potential for multipartism to provide a self-sustaining equilibrium carries a related implication for concerns about democratic backsliding.

Backsliding without breakdown. It is prudent to take note of attacks on democratic rules and norms, even when the overall political system is not immediately endangered. Yet close attention to scattered cases of backsliding may suggest causal or predictive relationships that broader evidence does not support. A train of abuses may precede a democratic breakdown in a way that cannot be written off as pure coincidence, but the question of how much backsliding contributes to breakdown remains unanswered until one considers backsliding’s relationship to democratic survival as well.

The data revealed that the road from backsliding to breakdown may be less traveled than previously assumed. Whereas speculation about a democratic crisis has centered on illiberal elites and their loyal zealots, the statistics point to the continuing power of structural conditions to hem in those actors and uphold democracy. Today’s would-be electoral autocrats choose their strategies for cementing power, but they do not choose the circumstances in which they pursue those strategies. When antecedent conditions include a competitive struggle for the people’s vote, bolstered by a robust economy, incumbents will find themselves hard-pressed to turn incremental gains into indefinite mandates.

We would not assert that backsliding and breakdown are orthogonal, but the predictive relationship is so weak that students of democracy should exercise caution before treating signs of democratic deterioration as portents of dictatorship. As the Table indicated, backsliding has been a problem within electoral democracies, but it is not associated with regime breakdown. If the patterns we observed hold over the coming decades, it may become commonplace to see backsliding and forward progress in equal measure as governments oscillate along the spectrum of electoral democracy. If commentators want to opine about the lifespan of a democracy, they would do well to speak of backsliding as a generally nonfatal ailment, from which electoral democracies often recover. And they will find a country’s material status to be the clearest guide to its long-term prognosis.

An Agenda for Action

If recent observers have underrated economic development’s power to block dictatorship, it would be a mistake to hew to approaches that boosted democracy in the past but may not help much anymore. Since the end of the Cold War, the challenge facing multipartism has changed.

The predominant reaction to the political tumult of the 2010s has been to issue general warnings about power-hungry firebrands endangering democracies the world over. Vigilance is fine; it does not require alarmism. When discussions of a democratic crisis slip into lurid historical analogies and unempirical speculation, they cloud matters rather than clarify them.

A dozen established electoral democracies were interrupted in the 2010s, but close attention to the ways in which democracy broke down and the larger contexts of events shows that our planet is not in the midst of an interwar-style reverse wave of democratization, much less the rise of an “authoritarian international.”

Knowing the specifics of where and how democracy is endangered is crucial. The most likely countries to experience breakdown are low-income and often relatively young democracies in the global South. These countries have not featured prominently in popular coverage, perhaps because they lack geopolitical heft or because their instability seems less novel. But aiming attention and resources at places where breakdown is not likely will not help the many millions of people who live in places where it is. A discussion of the practical means for preventing democratic breakdown is beyond our present scope, but there are some general lessons to keep in mind.

Economic development is the big factor. As a predictor of democratic survival, it eclipses all other variables. The magic number is a GDPpc (apart from oil rents) of 16,374 constant PPP 2017 international dollars per year. Above that level, the odds of democratic survival become favorable, and no other variable can compete. Were South Korea as poor as Brazil, for example, then the chance of South Korean democracy surviving for the next twenty years would drop by 25 percent on that token alone. Conversely, if Zambia were as affluent as Brazil, the likelihood of Zambian electoral democracy lasting for at least a generation would go from barely better than a coin flip (52 percent) to a solid prospect that nearly any wagering person would take (87 percent).

The road to development can be bitterly long, unfortunately. If GDPpc grew at 3 percent per year (the mean growth rate from 2000 through 2019), it would take the median case of democratic breakdown (Bangladesh in 2013, the year before breakdown) 53.6 years to exceed the level of 1975 Argentina. This is a daunting time horizon, but at least the data show that national material gains—slowly made though they may be—do yield the surest guarantee that, once a people have achieved their republic, they can keep it.

While political economy’s tectonic plates grind away in the background, policymakers and practical political scientists will focus on the nearer term. They have long sought ways to strengthen democratic institutions and norms, and nothing in our analysis argues for abandoning that search. We do reason, however, that a country’s macroeconomic profile communicates important information for interpreting its internal politics.

When it comes to holding accountable state officials who flout the law, suppress public debate, or plunder the treasury, development level should not figure. But where a country stands in terms of material affluence—and the baseline risk of democratic breakdown—does signify how seriously such malfeasance jeopardizes an entire political system. In economically advanced multiparty states, the abuse of power by elected leaders and their subordinates has not historically posed the level of existential threat that equivalent behaviors have brought to developing democratic states. These robust patterns indicate that speculation about antidemocratic regime change in many countries may be misplaced even—and perhaps especially—when concerns about discrete political failures are justified.

As it happens, there are even strong signs of long-term coherence, despite recurring challenges, in medium- and low-income democracies. Take Ecuador, a country that experienced a coup in 1997 and another in 2000. 29 It would be facile to call Ecuador’s democracy dictator-proof. In the first half of 2013, left-wing populist and thrice-elected president Rafael Correa appeared to be taking Ecuador “down an increasingly authoritarian path.” 30 As his personal control over national institutions grew, Correa “looked like a sure bet to become president-for-life.” 31 Yet prior politics suggested—and later events confirmed—that Correa would struggle at erecting a one-person autocracy. By 2017, the political and economic winds had turned against Correa; he had been forced to scupper his reelection plans and back an ostensible surrogate, Lenín Moreno. Moreno won the presidency in a runoff, then reversed much of Correa’s intended legacy and served only a single term. He did not run in the 2021 election, and in May of that year peacefully passed power to the democratically elected opposition candidate. 32

Symptoms of backsliding may be just that, signs that the machinery of government and the mores of society are falling behind expectations and historic standards. These signs are not negligible problems that will vanish if left alone, but neither do they point to a collapse of multiparty politics. In Ecuador, the Philippines, and other periodically volatile regimes, some form of multiparty civilian-driven pluralism has generally cohered even when the times have seemed to favor despotism. This is because when aspiring autocrats try to concentrate power, the very systems of political competition that they threaten also impede them. In light of this, the best response to backsliding will not be high-level forecasts of democracy descending into autocracy, but more granular work that seeks to tune up the gears of the state and cultivate a greater openness to differences among citizens.

A Gallery of Isolated Rogues

Surprising events have left observers of politics grasping for answers. Recent literature on the weakening and collapse of democracy focuses on important cases where authoritarianism took hold (Nicaragua, Russia, Turkey, Venezuela) or illiberal leaders who challenged sacrosanct democratic norms and rules in their respective countries (Brazil, Hungary, India, the United States). These countries are few in number but heavy in implication. They have attracted close academic and media attention under the suspicion that they point to a global trend. Still, it has been difficult to gauge the utility of historical comparisons or the scope of today’s antidemocratic threats. Without complacency, students of democracy must be on guard as well against an evidence-resistant “tyrannophobia” that treats every bumptious and overweening executive as the next Mussolini. 33

Our inquiry into democratic breakdown over a hundred-year span allows us to consider the most alarming recent setbacks for democracy, the calamitous fascist wave of the 1920s and 1930s, and numerous other events that have attracted less attention. Statistical tests on more than two-hundred democratic spells show that recent problems of executive takeover and democratic breakdown are unlikely to amount to anything like the authoritarian cascade that followed the First World War. Fortunately, in most of the world where conditions for democratic stability (especially productive national wealth) appeared strong twenty or thirty years ago, they continue to bode well. Conversely, where these conditions have been scarce, countries have not miraculously solidified their democratic institutions in the historical equivalent of a fortnight. Both types of democratic breakdown can be expected to continue to bedevil states as impoverished as Haiti, Nepal, and Niger.

At the other end of the economic-development continuum, high (non-oil) GDPpc remains the single most consistent predictor of survival in electoral democracies. The case of Turkey notwithstanding, high levels of development continue to provide one of the strongest defenses against autocracy. In wealthy countries not dependent on oil rents, even the most power-hungry leaders are likely to hit obstacles if they try to smother dissent.

More often than not, mass electoral contests have proved a bulwark against would-be tyrants. Multipartism forces civilian politicians to vie for and share power, without the armed forces picking winners. Even when that system suffers from ills such as polarization and majoritarianism, it stands apart from the small number of erstwhile democracies that are now led by executives who have managed to install themselves for life.

Worrying about civil-liberties violations and electoral malfeasance remains reasonable: Alternation in power does not prevent incumbents and oppositionists from flouting norms and institutions, sometimes with force. Elected leaders are likely to continue challenging the soft guardrails of norms and the hard limits of the law. They will not pursue such schemes in self-selected circumstances. In this respect, their fate lies as much in their stars as in themselves.

WHY DEMOCRACY SURVIVES: A DEBATE Jason Brownlee and Kenny Miao, “ Why Democracy Survives ” RESPONSES Yascha Mounk, “ The Danger Is Real ” Nancy Bermeo, “ Questioning Backsliding ” Tom Ginsburg, “ The Value of ‘Tyrannophobia ’” Susan D. Hyde and Elizabeth N. Saunders, “ Follow the Leader ” REBUTTAL Jason Brownlee and Kenny Miao, “ A Quiet Consensus ”

1. Samuel P. Huntington, The Third Wave: Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century (Norman: Oklahoma University Press, 1991), 14–15.

2. Zafer Yılmaz and Bryan S. Turner. “Turkey’s Deepening Authoritarianism and the Fall of Electoral Democracy,” British Journal of Middle East Studies 46 (December 2019): 691.

3. Aziz Huq and Tom Ginsburg, “How to Lose a Constitutional Democracy,” UCLA Law Review 65 (February 2018): 78–169; Adam Przeworski, Crises of Democracy (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2019); Larry Diamond, Ill Winds: Saving Democracy from Russian Rage, Chinese Ambition, and American Complacency (New York: Penguin, 2019); Timothy Snyder, The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America (New York: Tim Duggan, 2018); Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, How Democracies Die (New York: Broadway Books, 2018); Ozan O. Varol, “Stealth Authoritarianism,” Iowa Law Review 100 (May 2015): 1673–1742; Emily Holland and Hadas Aron, “We Don’t Know How Democracies Die,” London School of Economics Phelan U.S. Centre blog, 8 February 2018; Steven Levitsky and Lucan Ahmad Way, “The Myth of Democratic Recession,” Journal of Democracy 26 (January 2015): 45–58; Chris Maisano, “Democracy’s Morbid Symptoms,” Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy 3 (Summer 2019): 181–207; Daniel Treisman, “Is Democracy Really in Danger? The Picture Is Not as Dire as You Think,” Washington Post, 19 June 2018.

4. Anna Lührmann and Staffan I. Lindberg, “A Third Wave of Autocratization Is Here: What Is New About It?” Democratization 26 (October 2019):1095–1113.

5. Christopher Ingraham, “The United States Is Backsliding into Autocracy Under Trump, Scholars Warn,” Washington Post, 18 September 2020.

6. Barton Gellman, “Trump’s Next Coup Has Already Begun,” Atlantic, 6 December 2021.

7. Dylan Matthews, “Is Trump a Fascist? 8 Experts Weigh In,” Vox, 23 October 2020.

8. Seymour Martin Lipset, “Some Social Requisites of Democracy: Economic Development and Political Legitimacy,” American Political Science Review 53 (March 1959): 69–105; Adam Przeworski et al., Democracy and Development: Political Institutions and Well-Being in the World, 1950–1990 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000).

9. In the 1920s and 1930s, nearly two-thirds of the world’s existing democracies collapsed; between 1960 and 1975, over a third of electoral democracies broke down. Huntington, Third Wave, 14–21.

10. Levitsky and Ziblatt, How Democracies Die ; Milan W. Svolik, “When Polarization Trumps Civic Virtue: Partisan Conflict and the Subversion of Democracy by Incumbents,” Quarterly Journal of Political Science 15 (January 2020): 3–31.

11. Levitsky and Ziblatt, How Democracies Die, 5.

12. Nancy Bermeo, “On Democratic Backsliding,” Journal of Democracy 27 (January 2016): 5–19.

13. Vanessa Alexandra Boese et al., “Deterring Dictatorship: Explaining Democratic Resilience Since 1900,” V-Dem Working Paper 101 (May 2020): 12.

14. “The November 2011 Elections in Nicaragua: A Study Mission Report,” Carter Center, www.cartercenter.org/resources/pdfs/peace/americas/nicaragua_2011_report_post.pdf

15. Lipset, “Some Social Requisites of Democracy,” 75.

16. Adam Przeworski and Fernando Limongi, “Modernization: Theories and Facts,” World Politics 49 (January 1997): 165.

17. In constant 2010 U.S. dollars, the GDPpc of Turkey in 2016 was 23 percent larger than that of Argentina in 1975. All economic data come from the Gapminder project, which compiles information from multiple sources, including the World Bank, the Maddison Project, and Penn World Tables, www.gapminder.org/data/documentation/gd001 .

18. This analysis includes democratic spells of at least three continuous years. Periods of democracy and incidents of breakdown come from the Lexical Index of Electoral Democracy (LIED), version 5.3. See Svend-Erik Skaaning, John Gerring, and Henrikas Bartusevičius, “A Lexical Index of Electoral Democracy,” Comparative Political Studies 48 (October 2015): 1491–1525. The LIED sorts democratic breakdowns into four categories: gradual regressions induced by incumbents, coups, foreign occupations, and self-coups (incumbents close parliament and take full control). We coded incumbent-led self-coup and gradual regression as “executive takeover” and coup and foreign occupation as “executive removal.” The general pattern did not substantially change under slightly different codings from a range of leading democracy datasets.

19. The Maldives skirts the line between executive takeover and executive removal. In February 2012, opposition forces irregularly deposed President Mohamed Nasheed amid a power struggle that had already ruptured the country’s short-lived electoral democracy. See Fathima Musthaq, “Shifting Tides in South Asia: Tumult in the Maldives,” Journal of Democracy 25 (April 2014): 166.

20. Milan W. Svolik, “Which Democracies Will Last? Coups, Incumbent Takeovers, and the Dynamic of Democratic Consolidation,” British Journal of Political Science 45 (October 2015): 725–27.

21. Kurt Weyland, “Populism’s Threat to Democracy: Comparative Lessons for the United States,” Perspectives on Politics 18 (June 2020): 397–98.

22. Robert R. Kaufman and Stephan Haggard, “Democratic Decline in the United States: What Can We Learn from Middle-Income Backsliding?” Perspectives on Politics 17 (June 2019): 417.

23. Orbán has left no doubt that he sees Russia and Turkey as lodestars, but only one major research team has labeled Hungary an “electoral autocracy.”See “Full Text of Viktor Orbán’s Speech at Băile Tuşnad (Tushnádfürdő) of 26 July 2014,” Budapest Beacon, 29 July 2014; V-Dem Institute, “Autocratization Turns Viral: Democracy Report 2021,” 22–23.

24. Bermeo, “On Democratic Backsliding,” 5.

25. Kaufman and Haggard, “Democratic Decline in the United States”; Vanessa Alexandra Boesse et al., “How Democracies Prevail: Democratic Resilience as a Two-Stage Process,” Democratization 28 (July 2021): 885–907; Max Fisher, “Is the World Really Falling Apart, or Does It Just Feel That Way?” New York Times, 12 July 2022.

26. Moreover, V-Dem’s “electoral democracy index” (v2x_polyarchy) offers a continuous variable (ranging from 0 to 1) that takes in electoral fairness, freedoms of the press and association, and other basics that establish regime type. See Michael Coppedge et al., “V-Dem Codebook v11.1,” V-Dem Project, 43.

27. Looking at all countries from 2000 through 2019, we identified “backsliding periods” by looking for a substantial (0.1) net decline in the v2x_polyarchy score over some portion of that period—a method based on Kaufman and Haggard, “Democratic Decline in the United States,” 418. This analysis covered countries with democratic spells of at least three continuous years. Use of a lower threshold (0.08) yielded one additional case of a breakdown preceded by a backsliding period (Zambia 2016), and four additional cases of survival preceded by backsliding periods (Argentina, the Czech Republic, Mexico, and Papua New Guinea).

28. Christopher Carothers, “The Surprising Instability of Competitive Authoritarianism,” Journal of Democracy 29 (October 2018): 129–35.

29. Dieter Nohlen and Simon Pachano, “Ecuador,” in Dieter Nohlen, ed., Elections in the Americas A Data Handbook: Volume II South America (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), 368.

30. Carlos de la Torre, “Latin America’s Authoritarian Drift: Technocratic Populism in Ecuador,” Journal of Democracy 24 (July 2013): 35.

31. Carlos de la Torre, “Latin America’s Shifting Politics: Ecuador After Correa,” Journal of Democracy 29 (October 2018): 80.

32. John Polga-Hecimovichand Francisco Sánchez, “Latin America Erupts: Ecuador’s Return to the Past,” Journal of Democracy 32 (July 2021): 5–18.

33. Eric A. Posner and Adrian Vermeule, The Executive Unbound: After the Madisonian Republic (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011).

34. Fisher, “Is the World Really Falling Apart?”

Image Credit: Gguy/Shutterstock.com

Bangladesh’s Fresh Start

Jalal Alamgir

After a nearly two-year interlude of authoritarian rule, Bangladeshis voted decisively for democracy, a secular approach to politics, and the center-left. The challenge now is to show that parliamentary democracy…

Volume 11, Issue 4

Mexico’s Victory: Vicente Fox and the Rise of the PAN

David Shirk

Although Fox’s National Action Party (PAN) is frequently portrayed as a reactionary party, it is better understood as a liberal-democratic alternative to the former ruling party’s authoritarianism.

Volume 21, Issue 3

The Democratic Instinct in the 21st Century

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono

Democratization is never easy, smooth, or linear, but as Indonesia’s experience in building a multiparty and multiethnic democracy shows, it can succeed even under difficult and initially unpromising conditions.

mangaluru News

Democracy has limited relevance without education: SC judge

Visual Stories

Democracy Without Education Is Meaningless

The importance of education in a democracy cannot be overstated, as it is what leads to progress and greatness. Unfortunately in India, the situation regarding education is distressing, with 60% of the population being illiterate. Adult education is necessary and can serve as an incentive to primary education. Social education is also needed to guide people in their leisure time and to avoid illiteracy and ignorance, which is a burden on society. Overcoming the difficulties of implementing adult education requires cleverness, fact, compromise, or intentional avoidance. The purpose of good teaching is to produce changes in human behavior and adult education emancipates people from illiteracy. It is important for citizens to be knowledgeable, for older individuals to keep their minds active, and for workers to be up-to-date on new techniques and technologies in a complex modern economy. Anyone, regardless of age, can go back to school and pursue their dreams related to their job through adult education programs.

Democracy without education is meaningless. It is education and enlightenment that lifts a nation to the heights of progress and greatness. Unfortunately, the situation as it obtains in India in respect of education is not only distressing but disgraceful and deplor? able. At present about 60% of the people in India are illiterate; they cannot differentiate a buffalo from a black mole. Adult education is needed because it is a powerful auxiliary and an essential incentive to primary education. No programme of compulsory universal education can bear fruit without the active support and co-operation of adults ocial educa? tion is needed in order to guide in spending their leisure in health? ful recreations and useful activities. Lastly, illiteracy and ignorance is a sin; an illiterate adult is a burden on society. A The difficulties have to be overcome either by cleverness, or by fact or by compromise, or may be, by intentional avoidance. Only then we can hope to spread Adult Education. The purpose of all good teaching is to produce changes in human behavior. All adult education teacher must adopt a positive approach; adult education emancipates people from the tyranny of illiteracy. 1] Some people, in their early age, did not have the chance to get education for different reasons. When they are old if then, they get education and they can discover themselves in a new way. [2] Learning is a continuous process, and if adult persons have the continued relationship with knowledge is also important. {3] Some adult much time to take rest but if they are engaged in learning they can also have fun and friends. {4] If they are busy something creative jobs, they will never feel boring rather they will feel healthier and happier.

We can implement it by making people people aware of it , starting campaigns and doing surveys . 1. in a complex modern democracy, citizens must be knowledgeable. 2. research shows that older people who keep their minds active suffer less dementia and other memory type diseases in old age. 3. in a complex modern economy, workers must be up-to-date on new techniques, and technologies Many people fail to understand that if they don ‘t make the extra effort, they ‘ll never be able to amount to much in life. Some however, after spending a ot of their time as kids fooling around, begin to make the effort to improve their status in life. So being well above thirty or even forty years doesn ‘t matter; anyone can still go back to school to study. It could be any degree that you want. Having missed out on education when you were yet young, still doing school might not look like a good option. However, there are so many adult education programs around, it would spin you in the head just thinking of it. You don ‘t have to give up on your dreamsrelated to their job.

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What Students Are Saying About Democracy, Caring For Plants and “Flights to Nowhere”

Teenage comments in response to our recent writing prompts, and an invitation to join the ongoing conversation.

By The Learning Network

For this roundup of student comments on our writing prompts , we asked teenagers to reflect on how their generation is fighting for democracy, to tell us if they have ever grown anything and to muse about if they would take a “flight to nowhere.”

Thank you to all those who joined the conversation from around the world, including teenagers from Thessaloniki, Greece; Ithaca, N.Y. and Burlington, Vt .

Please note: Student comments have been lightly edited for length, but otherwise appear as they were originally submitted.

Is Your Generation Doing Its Part to Strengthen Our Democracy?

Students had a lot to say about the challenge to “redeem the soul of our nation” issued in John Lewis’s Op-Ed , written shortly before his death to be published upon the day of his funeral. They shared their own thoughts on democracy and what they believe their generation is doing to make a difference.

Responses ranged from their takes on the current democratic system to personal accounts of hands-on civic engagement. And while many noted social media as a primary means of political self-expression, students’ opinions on its efficacy as an instrument of change varied.

Defining Democracy for My Generation

Democracy is taking part in your government to make your nation a better place for future generations. The fact that we are involved in our democracy at such a young age is incredibly inspiring. A large part of our democracy is the right to peaceful protest. Our current police system makes it difficult to feel safe when going to support a cause such as Black Lives Matter and this needs to change. John Lewis said “Ordinary people with extraordinary vision can redeem the soul of America by getting in what I call good trouble, necessary trouble” because most of the people I know cannot vote yet, we must participate in democracy through other ways, such as protesting and spreading awareness on social media or standing up to racist family members.

— Claudia, Valley Stream North High School

To me, the words “Democracy is not a state, it is an act” mean that the essence of democracy resides not in a state that claims to be democratic, but instead in the people who choose to exercise their power in government. I believe that, even though most of my peers cannot vote, my generation is incredibly involved in politics. My generation has realized the power of their voices — that power that is so essential to democracy. My generation has exercised their freedom of speech to push for change, making speech not only a freedom but a catalyst for justice.

— James Doyle, Glenbard West

This year, as chaotic and volatile as it’s been, has been a giant step forward for the young people of this country. Just a year ago, myself among many many others who aren’t yet eighteen couldn’t care less about politics because “If I can’t vote, what does it matter what I think?” But within the past year, we as a county have watched our ideas of societal normals be turned on their heads and we’ve been exposed to such polarizing ideas and realities that we no longer can’t have an opinion and our own thoughts. I don’t see this as just an age where I start to gain an understanding of politics because I’ve watched those even a few years younger than me become so educated and exposed to what’s really going on around us. We as American people have watched the horrific killings of black Americans by the hands of law enforcement, watched our president refuse to offer his sympathy to problems, watched as American cities become battle grounds, and realized our everyday lives will never ever be the same. Young people aren’t blind, we see what’s going on in front of us, and it’s not something we can be indifferent about. So it’s no longer “If I can’t vote, what does it matter what I think?” It’s now “What do I think? So I can vote and make a change when I’m eighteen.” Even without voting, young people have been protesting for what they believe in. So the way I see it, the future is safe with the hands of our young people who no longer see themselves as just such.

— Grayson, Glen Ellyn, IL

Democracy is the freedom of choice. It is the freedom of change, and a key to be utilized to mold a brighter future. I see our democracy our ability to hold an opinion, popular or not. It is the skin that protects our vocal cords, and the microphone that keeps our voices from being drowned out. It secures our vote and allows us to use that vote to speak out against injustice. The most important part of our democracy is the respect it secures for our human rights, but in the end it is an opportunity, and that opportunity can be ignored. If we do not take the initiative to nurture and cultivate our democracy it will grow weak. Even a tool as powerful as democracy is worthless when left unused.

— Aldon Aquarian, Cass High School, GA

Making the Political Personal

The biggest threat to democracy is not being open to listening and hearing out someone, regardless of whether you want to agree or disagree with them. I feel that the nuances of many issues are lost in this way, as people are too quick to judge those different from them. Having healthy and open discussions with each other is the key to keeping our democracy alive. Personally, I thoroughly enjoy having conversations with people whose ideologies and opinions greatly differ from mine as I gain perspective and understanding

— Lucy Wu, Valley Stream North High School

A few years ago I became passionate about the Israel Palestine conflict. I wanted to do anything I could to help so I began the search for an activism group that was seeking to help those most hurt by the conflict, the Palestinian peoples. I found a group called Kids for Peace and the next thing I knew I was on a plane to Washington, DC. I had two weeks there where we would meet with professors, religious members, and people who came from both sides of the issue. They were all able to help us form our strategy to convince Senators why they should support our emergency relief bill for residents in the conflict area. We spent days in congress lobbying to dozens for Representatives and Senators trying to convince them to help those we thought needed it the most. A few months after the trip we heard the news that $50 million in aid had been approved. It was extremely rewarding for me to know that something that I took part in would go on to help so many people who didn’t have a voice of their own.

— Summit Sularz, Burlington, VT

Mr. Lewis echoes Martin Luther King’s sentiment about having a moral obligation to speak up and act when we see injustice. I agree with this idea, as tolerating injustice leads to a passive society that is willing to make minimal reforms to flaws in its political system. Many ordinary people have been speaking out against injustices. Currently, attention is being drawn to the racism in the United States justice system … I participated in direct action against anti-black racism through protests, monetary contributions to organizations, and introspection into my own racial biases. However, becoming an anti-racist is a lifelong process, and I will have to continue to make efforts throughout my entire life.

— Karina Johnston, Glenbard West HS

My generation has turned to their platforms to inform about topics including racial justice, climate change, COVID updates, economic issues, women’s rights, LGBTQ+ rights, and the Trump administration … Although social media is a great informative tool, the real work — the work of Dr. King and John Lewis and the strengthening of democracy — takes place in one’s house, community, school, place of worship, workplace, and, most importantly, at the polls and in the legislative process. For underage people, there are various ways to contribute: become a poll worker, help the campaigning process, advocate for policies in local government, engage in voter education, encourage older peers to vote, research candidates, volunteer to help register people to vote, etc. For those over 18, they can and should use their vote. This is how we rise to the challenges. This is how we strengthen our democracy.

— Caitlin Balón, South Burlington, Vermont

Using Social Media: Activism, Slacktivism, and Cancel Culture

I believe that my generation is doing its part to maintain democracy in the United States. Since the Black Lives Matter movement took off to the levels it did in 2020 after the murder of George Floyd, people in my grade have been voicing their opinions on the things that need to be changed in our society on a daily basis. They have been using platforms like Instagram and Facebook to voice their opinions on the ongoing injustice in our country. Even though they still do not have the right to vote yet, they still have voiced their opinions through social media — the exact thing that civil rights icon John Lewis called on our generation to do. Lewis said that he knew he wanted to fight for change from the young age of fifteen, which is about the age that people in Gen Z are right now. Democracy, by definition, is allowing the people to have a say in social issues, and people voicing their opinions on social issues is the perfect example of democracy, as the great leader John Lewis did before his recent death.

— Sam Casas, Glenbard West HS, Glen Ellyn, IL

I believe that our generation has risen up to the challenges that Mr. Lewis described in his essay. Especially in the past few months, all around the country our generation has taken part in and organized protests against police brutality and the social injustices we see in our country today. Our generation is using social media, which the past generations did not have as much access too, to make sure that our voices are heard and accounted for. Senator Lewis was strongly against violence and I believe our generation is doing a good job of peacefully protesting for change. With the 2020 election approaching this November, our generation is pushing everyone who is eligible to vote to do so, doing their part to strengthen the democracy and let their voices be heard. Our generation still has a lot of work to be done: however, I believe Generation Z is on the right track.

— Jack Hasselbach, Burlington, VT

I feel like Generation Z isn’t doing enough to strengthen our democracy and our community on a day to day basis. Many people think that going online and posting about the problems in our nation is going to help. I believe that instead of posting beliefs and thoughts online, a person should go out and get involved in the community. They should offer up their time and effort to help out instead of just complaining about it on social media. I’ve been included in many community service projects and I believe that that is the best way to make a difference in communities. Instead of trying to impact others by your words online, go out and put forth the effort needed to truly make a difference. In this case, the saying, “actions speak louder than words,” is true upon many levels to better our democracy, nation, and communities.

— Mya Patton, Lubbock, TX

I feel like our generation isn’t doing enough to instill the power of our democracy to its fullest capabilities. Gen Z has a tendency to use cancel culture to ruin the lives of those who have a difference in opinion from theirs — which is what our country has fought for countless amount of times. This makes life very hard for those who have a difference in opinion from what the societal norm is. Although sometimes I personally don’t agree with these people’s opinion it’s important for them to be able to feel comfortable while expressing their beliefs. Politics have created a very toxic for our generation and even though it’s important to be informed and have an opinion kids should not be divided among themselves because of a difference in opinion because only together will we create change.

— Mohammad Khan, Glenbard West HS, Glen Ellyn, IL

Have You Ever Tried to Grow Something?

Most students responded to our Student Opinion question Have You Ever Tried to Grow Something? with an enthusiastic “Yes.” Sure, we heard about some things that didn’t grow, like a Venus flytrap whose owner forgot that insects alone didn’t meet the plant’s hydration needs, but for the most part students’ responses hit notes of optimism — for the harvest, for time in the garden with family, even for a better future.

Sharing the Harvest

I believe gardening is an outlet for relaxing and rekindling your connection to the Earth and nature. If I could have a garden I would place it in the middle of home-towns park, giving access to anyone who wants it. The majority of the plants would be fruits and vegetable so people can have access to fresh and local produce to help the environment.

— Liam Marlatt, Oneonta NY

… I think for most families each year they plant a couple tomato plants, maybe some jalapeños in their backyard. And then forget about it until things start to grow. That used to be my family, but this summer my little sister had brought some life into our previously dull garden … After I began to help my sister, I realized that all my neighbors had amazing gardens in their backyards also, we would go over and bring some of our vegetables, and they would give us some of theirs. This created a sense of community through all of us. We could all appreciate and care for each other’s gardens.

— Katie O’Connell, Glenbard West High School

I would sometimes even help my neighbors garden and plant flowers. Although growing these foods only saved a few dollars, the sense of community and bonding experiences which came with it are priceless. I think gardening is very important as it can be a stress reliever and bring people together. During a time like this when the world seems to be more divided than ever. Small things like getting together with family and neighbors to garden can help build lasting bonds between people.

— Robert Sladewski, GBW Highschool

Cultivating More Than Plants

When the pandemic first hit and we went into quarantine, collectively the consensus was that it would be a short reprieve from our daily lives. How wrong we were. As the days went on people got tired of watching TV and scrolling online and many of us chose to use this newfound time for self improvement, to pick up the hobbies we always said we didn’t have time for. For many people gardening became a new infatuation, myself included. I think when we saw how out of control our lives were getting and how unpredictable everything became we chose something we could control, but would also reap rewards. Gardening requires time, planning, a bit of luck, but most importantly it requires a sense of patience. During a time where we didn’t know when our crazy new lives would end and our old normal return we wanted to find a sense of peace and patience as a people, and I think gardening brought that to many.

— Rylee Spangler, Lubbock-Cooper High School

Caring for plants is equal to caring for ourselves and the others. When you try to grow a plant and you focus on the process, step by step, with eyes wide open you can learn many truths of life. It takes time for a plant to grow and you need to take care of it every day. The same thing is applicable to people. It takes time to grow your inner self and much effort too. Planting can teach us to be patient and calm. Can, also, teach us how respectful we must be for the water and sun, and for the right way to use both of them in our everyday life.

— Ino, Thessaloniki, Greece

With our schedules so jam-packed these days, gardens can teach us how to be patient and how to work hard at nourishing a living thing to produce, well, produce, that will taste far better than money can buy. They teach us how to take time to slow down and to get our hands dirty for a good cause. I know this first-hand. Every summer, our family transforms a seemingly useless plot of dirt into a flourishing, full-of-life garden, that gives us juicy, bright red tomatoes; sweet, pleasantly green cucumbers; bitter, deep purple eggplant.

— Mia Gialo, Glenbard West High School

Finding Reasons to Be Grateful

I’ve spent my whole life gardening with my family, and it’s something that has only increased in importance to me as I’ve grown up … Now, I’ve realized that growing my own produce benefits the planet by saving CO2 emissions from transportation, and how it allows me to choose not to use pesticides or herbicides on my food. Beyond that, the 7 soil-filled squares in my backyard have made me realize everything that goes into a single fruit or vegetable. It has forced me to recognize the weeding, watering, and worrying that produces a handful of tomatoes, and has led me to appreciate the people who work tirelessly to cultivate the crops I find in the grocery store.

— Kate Bachman, Glenbard West HS

Caring for plants gives you a sense of belonging because in a way, you pour part of yourself into that plant. It seems to give you a sense of purpose, and when you see it’s final progress, you get to know that you had a part in its growth and life.

— Taytum Bailey, Lubbock, TX

Strengthening Connections to Family

Gardening has always been important to me. My grandfather and I connected this way … He brings me plants and herbs when he can and I water whenever I go over to his place. The patience and feeling of success while planting a garden is what truly keeps me going. Now I work as a florist and work with plants almost everyday. This part of my life is also a part of who I am and represents a strong relationship with my grandfather. It has truly shaped me as a person-I think that’s beautiful.

— Mallory, Chicago

I love planting things mostly because when we moved to our new house my mother made it a mission to get me out of the house. We started a garden in our backyard and ever since then it has become a time where we could talk about all sorts of issues and better our mother to daughter bond. It may seem like such a careless activity but, it’s really the only time I’m with my mom. We go out to buy out tools and soil and come home and plant them while we talk.

— jessica, varela

Would You Take a “Flight to Nowhere”?

Some airlines have begun offering “scenic flights” for passengers longing to travel again; these so called “ flights to nowhere ” land in the same place they depart from. We asked students what they thought about these flights and whether or not they would take one.

While many expressed the desire to go see the world and to rescue the airline industry, they simultaneously were alarmed by the waste of resources, the effects on climate change and the potential for spreading Covid-19.

A New Way to Travel

Personally, I feel like taking a flight for the scenery of it would be a new ingenious way for people to view different monuments and different natural landscapes. For example some different landscapes and monuments are really too large or too far apart to be enjoyed and appreciated the way they should be. Imagine if you could take in the Grand Canyon from a new angle. Or if you could have the opportunity to see an entire city in all of its glory from above. Also, a lot of scenes you don’t take in how beautiful they actually are until you see them from above. For example, you don’t really realize how scenic and beautiful a small town is until you can see it and all the other small towns around it from the same place. Another new opportunity that could arise from scenic flights would be tours. Imagine being a tourist in Europe and being able to see some of the most beautiful monuments and landscapes in the same world within a few hours.

— Matthew Tibbals, Ithaca, Ny

Good for the Airline Industry

As an aviation enthusiast, these kind of flights sound like a lot of fun, and good for the industry. COVID has hit the aviation industry hard, as travel is seemingly impossible in some situations. Airlines have resorted to fly purely cargo flights using temporarily cargo configured passenger aircraft, which allows the airline to generate a little bit of revenue and keep pilots paid. These flights to nowhere are likely a similar solution. Pilots can get in valuable paid flight hours, and the airline is still making money. Beyond that, it creates an opportunity for aviation and travel enthusiasts to get back in the air. I would love to try one of these sightseeing flights at some point. It allows me to have at least some return to normality, while also supporting the industry I find great interest in.

— David Manzke, Glenbard West High School

I think the flight-to nowhere is an excellent idea to revitalize the airline industry. Traveling the world was once one of my favorite hobbies to do, however with the current lock down measures I am not able to explore the world. A flight to nowhere would give me the opportunity to see wonderful places and provide airlines with some financial stability and income. This would have a trickle down effect to allowing people in the travel industry to keep their jobs and support their families. Overall a great idea to see a place from the skies!!!!!

— Brad, Saigon, Viet Nam

Good for Mental Health

I think that these flights are a good idea. People are so worried about health and cost it these times, yet a healthy mind is just as important as a healthy body. These flights are good for some people who can afford it (probably not many). Personally, I wouldn’t. It seems a bit too expensive, and I get airsick. But it seems like a good idea for some people who need a break. Some people are saying that it’s a waste to not be going anywhere, yet know that it isn’t healthy to just be staying at home, and it’s not like anybody can actually go anywhere. From a mental health perspective, it is a good idea.

— Zara S., J.R Masterman School, Philadelphia, PA

This idea of flights to nowhere seems crazy when you look at it from the surface. Why waste our time if we’re not actually going anywhere? Looking deeper, this idea of flights to nowhere could be a solution to something we’re all missing in this season of COVID 19. Lots of people have felt cooped up and restless. All we have to focus on is the fear of what is happening in our world and we’re stuck dwelling on the things that were taken away from us. Trips, friends, family, the summer we were all waiting for and now our new school year. We want to get out, fly away and leave our problems on the ground at least for a few hours. Flights to nowhere provide us with this little escape. We’re able to feel a sense of normalcy and the excitement that comes with traveling … Flights to nowhere seems unnecessary at first but under further inspection it is just the right medicine to cure our trapped and restless hearts.

— Kyrah Maas, Glenbard West HS

Risks Outweigh the Benefits

Though it’s true airlines that have been suffering from this year’s pandemic may benefit from these flights, I still believe they are more detrimental than helpful in the long run. The aviation industry plays a large role in global carbon emissions which worsen climate change; the industry is especially problematic because there aren’t any solar powered or electric powered planes compared to cars’ increasing reliance on renewable energy.

— Jade, Virginia

(A)lthough it would be a great experience, I feel it is irresponsible to conduct such flights. Airplanes are terrible for the environment because they release carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into our atmosphere which contributes to global warming tremendously. Going on trips to nowhere would only be wasting resources. We are also still in a pandemic and going to airports to go on needless flights can increase your risk and other people’s risk to contract the coronavirus. We need to be responsible with our actions and these “flights to nowhere” are extremely taxing on our environment and can be a risk to the health of others. Ultimately, I would agree that the risks outweigh the benefits-we need to protect our planet and our health before worrying about aviation companies and personal pleasure.

— Lina Jensen, Glen Ellyn, IL

I think the flight to nowhere travel is a waste of resources and harmful to the environment. Yes, it is nice to see different places and I see the appeal in reminding ourselves what it was like to travel, but flying is extremely harmful to the environment, and releasing greenhouses gasses into the atmosphere should not be taken lightly. I understand that many airlines need money and this is one way to earn it, but flying without a purpose does more harm then good. Not only is it harmful, it exposes passengers to COVID-19. The transmission rate indoors is much higher than it is outdoors, and it’s not like you can open the window on an airplane! While I do recognize what others are saying about missing the feeling of travel, there must be a better, safer, less harmful way to do it!

— Amelia, Julia Masterman School

Better Ideas for Travel

One of the main things I like about travel is exploring new places. Airliners have just been a useful, and slightly annoying, way to rapidly get to my destination. Besides, being on a plane right now seems like a bad idea. How can an airplane, with recirculated air and seats close together, not help COVID to spread? Another negative, the extra carbon-dioxide released into the atmosphere. These already hard to accept emissions become unjustifiable. So instead of taking one of these flights, look at some satellite photos of cool places on earth. Then use a more environmentally friendly method to go to a pretty spot near your house.

— Jacob F.R., Oneonta High School

There are many alternatives to flying that travelers can partake in: hiking, road trips, or camping. These alternatives not only reduce carbon output but are also very safe and allowed within most state guidelines. Unfortunately, for those who really want to be cramped in a middle seat, flying should wait, as the pandemic is not going anywhere soon.

— Andrew Carlson, Glenbard West High School, Glen Ellyn, IL

Taking Flight Through Poetry

Attention, please

______ Airline is

Now Boarding

Flight to nowhere

Please come to gate 3

Temperature: normal

Emotion: ready

Passport and ticket ready

Pillow and mask

Prepared to go nowhere

Seatbelt on

Up in the air

To nowhere with you

Departing and arriving

In the same place

A journey in the sky

Though no reason why

Maybe a needed vacation

A waste of money and time

Flight to utopia

Where we can

Take our minds off

From the corona

Even though it is just a moment

It is time to remember

What I would have done

In a no-COVID summer

We all need some rest

Earth or land

May peace be with you

Wherever you land

— Allison Go, South Korea

ML Aggarwal Solutions

ICSE Class 10 English Language Sample Question Paper 3 with Answers

Maximum Marks: 40 Time: 1 1/2 Hours

Section-A (Attempt all questions from this Section)

ICSE Class 10 English Language Sample Question Paper 3 with Answers 1

Mrs. Jane was lonely and carried a secret that many in her little village did not know or remember well. She had a son who was in the army and he went missing in action in Jammu and Kashmir. Since the day she got the news, she waited for him tirelessly, hoping and trusting that someday he would come back home. She had become a volunteer at the army centre where the wounded and dying soldiers were brought in for treatment and recuperation at the border. She was a source of comfort and encouragement for the soldiers and helped them connect with their family and loved ones.

Mrs. Jane gradually became stronger and gained calmness about her son’s loss and considered everyone she ministered to, a son, and took a mother’s place to take care of them. She put in all her energy and strength into her work. Though her daughters wanted her to rest and relax, she kept on doing her volunteership. As days went by, there were days that were better than the others and she hoped in a corner of her heart that her son would be alive.

True to her thoughts and faith, the unexpected happened, the government officer informed her that they found a person who could be her son based on the identification reports. It was her son indeed; her joy knew no bounds. She met her long-lost son and they took time to share what had happened until then. She was glad when she heard her son tell her that an old lady took care of him when he was wounded and Mrs. Jane was happy that God had accepted her service to the soldiers and gave her son back.

(ii) DEMOCRACY CANNOT SURVIVE WITHOUT EDUCATION FOR THE MOTION Thomas Jefferson states, “An educated citizenry is a vital requisite for our survival as a free people.” In a democracy which rests on the pillar of free people, one cannot survive without education. Education of its citizens takes predominance as the choices made by the people should be the outcome of a defined thought process, which cannot happen in a vacuum. Every decision taken by the citizen should be based on a learned thought. Citizens should be enlightened to at least a certain degree if they were to decide or vote or act upon principles or else there would be chaos and democracy might just fade away.

Every citizen from the richest to the poorest should receive education for the benefit of the society and the various interests of the society that need to be catered too. Citizens should be able to read and understand what is going on in the world and learn to keep their part in it and contribute towards democracy. If the people are uninformed, it would make them gullible and there would be a decrease in informed decisions and it, in turn, would hinder democracy.

Education needs to start right from a person’s childhood because if he is untaught, his ignorance and vices would cost us dearly, creating a need to correct them later on in life. On the other hand, if children are educated, they would imbibe virtue and values that would enable them to contribute as responsible citizens to the democracy.

Education should not just stop at the common man, but should also reach out for the training of able counselors so that they can administer the affairs of the country in all matters that include legislative, executive and judiciary. For a democracy to be alive, it needs people with truth and integrity in all the departments and that is possible only through education and by which a country can be led to prosperity, happiness, and power. In conclusion, it can be stated that it is imperative that education is the key for any democracy to function well and all citizens need to be educated.

AGAINST THE MOTION

‘Democracy cannot survive without education’ is the maxim, but with huge democracies, educating all to the level where they can all be involved in purposeful involvement would be difficult and might not be possible in most cases.

To create a just society, the society can be under the control of the most cultivated and best-informed minds and ‘lovers of wisdom,’ according to Plato. There is truth to this as a healthy and just person is governed by knowledge and reason; in the same manner, a democracy can only be run by the educated and well-informed and not by all the citizens.

With education and more people involved in the governance, national goals can become jumbled up, because there are too many people defining their wants as needs and it would be true to the saying, “Too many cooks spoil the broth.”

(iii) THE SIGHT OUTSIDE THE WINDOW The bell rings announcing the end of classes for the day, sparking up conversations as the teacher’s reminder to do the homework goes unheeded. There is nothing as exciting as the end of a school irrespective of the fun and learning that has taken place during the day. Kids rush out of classrooms, talking to friends, some playing, some go to the canteen for a snack and amidst all the noise, I slip out with my friends and walk to the school bus.

Yes, I go straight to the bus as I like to get a window seat so that I can enjoy the sights on the way home. It has become a great experience for me as I observe people and places. It never tires me to see all of the sights every day.

In the afternoons when the school gets over, there is less traffic and the school bus takes the beach route. The school bus goes through old buildings that were built in the British era; the Anglo Saracenic architecture fascinates me. The tall red buildings make me wonder about the olden days. The pigeons have made it their homes and I can hear them cooing, though it is faint.

We then pass through the fishing harbour which one can sense from a mile away because of the fishy smell. I see the heavy throng of people going in and out conducting business. I realise that this is where fish comes from for the local market. My dad buys fish from the local market and I sometimes think if I can get fresh fish right from the harbour. Apart from the fishy smell, I see the fishing

The reason for children working in quarries is poverty which means that the government needs to provide labour and food security to adult workers and also provide opportunities for children to study.

The girl in the picture and the thousands of children like her should be able to go to school and enjoy their childhood. The greed of people should not make them suffer and we hope that day comes soon.

Question 2. Select one of the following : [10] (i) Your friend has been sick and has been unable to attend school for two weeks. An interschool drama competition took place during this period. Write a letter to your friend telling him/her about the event and your role in it. (ii) You have accidentally left your suitcase behind when you got off the train. You only realised it after the train left the platform. Write a letter to the Station Master reporting your loss and request that the suitcase be located and kept till you claim it. Answer: (i) House no. 53, E Block, Anna Nagar East, Chennai-102. 8th February, 20XX Dear Grace, I hope this letter finds you in the best of your health and spirit. It has been two weeks since you came to school. I pray you recover soon. You asked me how the interschool drama competition went and I am very glad to tell you just that. The competition was held on 5th of February. The day was bright with a slight chill and it was wonderful to see the school bustling with action. All the students were excited and everyone including the teachers was hurrying to get their students dressed for the drama. We waited in anticipation and soon the auditorium was filled with everyone settled. The programme started with the lighting of the traditional lamp and welcome address by the Principal. There were six schools that participated in the competition, each one went on for about 20-30 minutes. Everyone was wrapped in attention to watch the plays and also to see who did the best. I liked “Macbeth” done by Anna Adarsh School. Some of the plays were “The Dear Departed”, “Chitra” by Rabindranath Tagore, (I remembered the writer), “Hamlet”, “Alice in Wonderland”, and a recreated part of “Wizard of Oz”. It was a magical evening. I missed you a lot and I am sure you would have enjoyed it too. Get well soon and come to school. Yours lovingly, Pamela.

(ii) House no. 53, E Block, Anna Nagar East, Chennai-102. 10th February, 20XX. The Station Master, Egmore Railway Station, Egmore, Chennai- 8 Dear Sir, I am Camilla from Anna Nagar and I recently travelled by Chennai-Kanyakumari Express 12633 on the 8th of February and reached Egmore, Chennai on 9th February. I am sorry to say that I left my suitcase in the train and only realised it after the train had left the station. I request you to kindly locate my suitcase as all of my important documents are in the suitcase. It is a blue American Tourister suitcase tied with a red ribbon and my home address stuck on it. I hope you will be able to locate the suitcase and I request you to please keep it at the station, until I come and collect it. I apologise for the inconvenience caused. Yours sincerely, Camilla Peter

Question 3. (i) You are the President of a children’s club in your locality. You and your team are planning to organise a programme to celebrate Teacher’s Day. Write a notice to be put up in the local supermarket, giving details of the programme to create an awareness of the event. [5] (ii) Write an e-mail to the General Manager of the supermarket seeking permission to display the notice and requesting a sponsorship for the event. [5] Answer: (i) Thank You Teachers! A cultural programme to celebrate Teachers’ Day. on 5th September, 20XX from 5.00 p.m. to 7.00 p.m. at Community Centre, South City Mall All teachers who are residents of the South City complex are cordially invited.

(ii) To: [email protected] Subject: Teachers’ Day Celebration Dear Sir, Teachers’ Day is around the comer and we, the residents of the South City Complex, would like to express our gratitude to our teachers by hosting a brief cultural programme on the 5th of September between 5.00 p.m. to 7.00 p.m. We would like to put up a notice for the same in your supermarket. There are about 25 teachers in our complex and we would be grateful if you allow us to put up the notice of the programme in order to create awareness of the event and thereby help us to make this day a memorable one for our dear teachers. We look forward to a favourable response. Ashish Roy President, Children’s Club, South City Society.

ICSE Class 10 English Language Question Papers with Answers

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COMMENTS

Democracy Can Not Survive Without Education, Views Either ...
August 23, 2022 by PANDEY TUTORIAL. Democracy Can Not Survive Without Education, Express your views either for or against this statement. In a democracy which rests on the pillar of free people, one cannot survive without education. Education of its citizens takes predominance as the choices made by the people should be the outcome of a defined ...
Democracy is Pointless Without Education
Words of wisdom from FDR: "Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education ...
The Role of Education in Democracy
This is the Harvard EdCast. Harvard's Danielle Allen knows young people aren't as invested in democracy like the generations before them. Today, fewer than 30% under age 40 even consider it important to live in a democracy. Allen is a political theorist who's long studied what citizens need in order for democracy to succeed.
Let's educate tomorrow's voters: Democracy depends on it
The final results of the 2022 midterm election in the United States are in. Journalists tell us that a key issue for voters was preservation of democracy. A recent NPR/PBS NewsHour /Marist poll ...
(PDF) There is no Democracy without Education
There is no Democracy without Education. Content may be subject to copyright. give him a feeling of awe for the wonders of the world. It is hardly worth the effort to. try to grow up into - and ...
Relationship between Democracy and Education
It is an admitted fact that there is an intimate relationship between democracy and education. In a democracy, education is given primacy, for it is pre-requisite for the survival and success of the former. Similarly, education fosters a democratic temper in the minds of people. Democratic values like liberty, equality, fraternity justice ...
DEMOCRACY CAN'T SURVIVE WITHOUT EDUCATION (English Composition: Essay
Hi,To enroll for my Online Lectures or Online Test Series,Email me:[email protected] me on Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/ajesmu...
Education and Democracy
The founders of the United States understood that "an ignorant people cannot remain a free people and that democracy cannot survive too much ignorance. " The American movement for "common schools" initiated in the 1830s sought to promote political stability, equip more people to earn a living, and enable people to follow the law and ...
'Democracy' in education: an omnipresent yet distanced 'other'
Like many concepts and notions used in various subfields of education, the idea of democracy is both floating and polysemic. It can also be a conveniently loose term that can be used by some to ...
Debate: Why Democracies Survive
Debate: Why Democracies Survive. Experts worry that de facto single-person regimes in previous multiparty states (Russia, Turkey, Venezuela) and norm-defiance in existing democracies (Brazil, Hungary, the United States) signal a coming authoritarian age. Without examining the broader record, however, it is hard to know whether such tremors ...
Democracy has limited relevance without education: SC judge
Without education, democracy has limited relevance and effectiveness, and without democracy, education loses its meaning." He was addressing the 40th annual convocation of Mangalore University ...
Democracy Without Education Is Meaningless
In a world where democracy is constantly under attack, it is more important than ever to ensure that everyone has access to education. Without education, democracy cannot survive. This essay will explore the importance of education in democracy, and how we can ensure that everyone has access to it.
Write a essay democracy cannot survive without education
Democracy can't survive without education Democracy as we know simply means, 'by the people, For the people'. But how will people select what they need and what they don't, What is right and what is wrong, If they aren't educated? Democracy without education is pointless. . . . It is like entering a building on fire with a glass of water.
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Write an essay on "Democracy cannot survive without education". Express your opinions for or against the statement. Democracy is a form of government where power is vested in the people and exercised through a system of representation. It is widely believed that education plays a crucial role in the survival of democracy.
What Students Are Saying About Democracy, Caring For Plants and
Democracy is the freedom of choice. It is the freedom of change, and a key to be utilized to mold a brighter future. I see our democracy our ability to hold an opinion, popular or not.
ICSE Class 10 English Language Sample Question Paper 3 with Answers
ICSE Class 10 English Language Sample Question Paper 3 with Answers. Question 1. Write a composition (300-350 words) on any one of the following. [20] (i) Write an original short story entitled 'Lost and Found'. (ii) 'Democracy cannot survive without education'. Express your views either for or against this statement.
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