Bildung and democracy

Authors

• Antti Moilanen Oulun yliopisto
• Jyrki Kaarttinen
• Matti Taneli

DOI: https://doi.org/10.33350/ka.108971

Keywords:

democracy, bildung, democracy theory, democracy education, democratic meta-competence, civilized thinking, democracy deficit

Abstract

It is widely accepted that a democratic society needs civilized citizens. On the one hand, it is seen that the quality of democracy is dependent on the civilizedness of the citizens. On the other hand, it is emphasized that civilized citizens expand the democracy of the society. In this article we analyze these theoretical positions on Bildung and democracy. We also analyze the contradictions of these positions. For this purpose, we examine empirical knowledge about the state of democracy, theories of democracy, theories of Bildung, and models of political education. We conceptualize two forms of democratic Bildung-theory and argue that both contain rational ideas. However, the criticisms that the proponents of these schools of thought have raised towards each other, must be considered. We argue that the concept of metademocratic competence could solve the tensions between theories of Bildung and political education.