Democracy as a Cross-Cultural Concept: Promises and Problems

Abstract

Abstract The accelerated democratization of Eastern and Central Europe has set into motion unprecedented efforts in citizenship education curriculum reform involving partner institutions from developed democracies. These efforts assume that democracy is a cross-cultural concept adaptable from a developed democracy to a developing democracy. This paper compares two distinct, but related, studies to address the viability of this assumption. The first study involved US and Czech participants in a citizenship education curriculum reform project as they mutually shaped a common ground for understanding the concept of democracy. The second study extended to the Czech Republic to test the viability of this common ground by surveying a purposeful sample of Czech social studies educators on their conceptions of democracy. The comparison of the findings yielded areas of commonality and difference on the conceptualization of democracy that led to promising and problematic implications for citizenship education curricular reform.