Democracy and Civic Engagement

Kurzfassung/Abstract

This course, "Democracy and Civic Engagement", explores the essence of democracy, its challenges, and its opportunities in today's world. Over eight weeks, the participants of this blended learnung course will reimagine democracy by not only studying its history and principles but also engaging in practical activities to strengthen your democratic awareness and skills.

In terms of content, the “Civic education” module was divided into eight units with the following course content:

Unit 1 - How "democratic" are the nations of the world, really?
Session 1: Contemporary Concept of Democracy: Exploring The Economist's "Democracy Index"
Session 2: The Evolution of Democracy and the Human Development Index


Unit 2 - What defines a democracy? Fundamentals of liberal democracies in the present and past.
Session 1: Overview of the Conceptual and Intellectual History of Democracy in Antiquity
Session 2: The Development of Democracy in Modern Times up to the French Revolution (1789)
Session 3: Types of Democracies - Strengths and Weaknesses


Unit 3 - Democracy as the rule of the better argument? Jürgen Habermas and his "discourse without domination".
Session 1: The Right Way to Argue in Discourse – The Core of Democratic Debate
Session 2: Practice: Learning to Discuss: Speech – Counter-speech – Compromise: Argue empathetically and democratically. A practical model.

Unit 4 - Is the majority principle a pathway to legitimate governance and free choice?
Session 1: The Majority – The Operational Tool for Democratic Decision-Making Legitimacy
Session 2: What Defines a Democratic Election? Exploring the Core of Democracy
Session 3: Voter Responsibility: Key Qualities of a Democratic Citizen


Unit 5 - How do "rule of law" and separation of powers shape democracies?
Session 1: Democracy is based on law and justice. The rule of law must guide all government actions.
Session 2: The separation of powers ensures limitations on state authority, establishing law as the basis of social order.
Session 3: Constitutional law as a means of restriction, guidance, and oversight of the judiciary and the state order.
Session 4: And what if a law becomes injustice? A case study on the White Rose resistance group.
Onsite Meeting: Sophie Scholl and the duty to resist enemies of democracy.


Unit 6 - How do democracies resist populism, authoritarianism and autocracy?
Session 1: The infection of populism as a disease of democracy
Session 2: Autocratic state ideas and their “charismatic leaders”
Session 3: Free speech without any limits? - Threats to democracy and enemy images
Session 4: What to do? What makes Lady Democracy strong and keeps her healthy?

Unit 7 - Freedom or equality: Which should prevail in democratic societies?
Session 1: Georg Orwell’s „Animal Farm“: the tension and dialectic between equality and freedom
Session 2: Key philosophical theories of equality
Session 3: Philosophical concepts of freedom that form the foundation of liberal democracies.
Session 4: The inequality index,the the relationship between democracy and inequality and the basic positions of limitarianism.

Unit 8 - What should ultimately be known and internalized about democracy?
Session 1: explaining why democracy has a “wild quality,” as John Keane wrote in 2022
Session 2: demonstraing the own growing understanding of democracy by linking key ideas and proposing solutions in major thematic areas
Session 3: Reflecting the own “reimagining of democracy” in dialogue with peers and facilitators