Fostering democracy through law and civic education.

Around the world, concerned individuals, associations, and nongovernmental organizations are working to foster civil societies, advance the levels of freedom and civil liberties, consolidate hard-fought democratic gains, and foster the development of liberal democracies. Expanding its impact on Florida students to engage in multicultural law and civic education programs, The Florida Law Related Education Association, Inc., participates in Civitas, a reciprocal international initiative which provides for a series of exchanges among leaders in civic education in the United States and emerging and established democracies around the world.

Civitas: An International Civic Education Exchange Program is administered nationally by the Center for Civic Education and funded through a grant from the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement, in cooperation with the U.S. Information Agency and its affiliated offices throughout the world.(1)

The goals of the Civitas Exchange Program are to:

* Acquaint international educators with exemplary curricular and teacher training programs in civic education developed in the United States;

* Assist educators in adapting and implementing effective civic education programs in their own countries;

* Create instructional materials for students in the United States that will help them better understand emerging constitutional democracies;

* Facilitate the exchange of ideas and experience in civic education among political, educational, and private sector leaders in the United States and emerging and established democracies; and

* Encourage research to determine the efforts of civic education on the development of the knowledge, skills, and traits of public and private character essential for the preservation and improvement of constitutional democracy.

The Civitas Exchange Program is affiliated with Civitas International, a consortium initiated in June 1995 at the Civitas@Prague conference sponsored by the U.S. Information Agency. At the close of that conference, participants representing more than 50 nations signed a declaration pledging to "create and maintain a worldwide network that will make civic education a higher priority on the international agenda." Members of Civitas International include leading civic education organizations from throughout the world dedicated to strengthening civic education and constitutional democracy.(2)

The Florida Law Related Education Association, Inc., has been involved in the Civitas Exchange Program since its inception in 1995.(3) The association has been partnered with Civitas-Hungary, a nongovernmental organization in Budapest, which is dedicated to teaching civic knowledge and skill.(4) The partnership has expanded greatly over the last four years. The relationships developed between students, teachers, judges, university faculty, and other "gatekeepers to democracy" continue to mature through collaborative civic education experiences. The outcomes have been beneficial to both Florida and Hungary. Teacher training opportunities have been expanded; lessons have been developed and tested; student-centered academic competitions have been implemented and evaluated; and professional exchanges have yielded outcomes benefiting teachers, faculty, and "gatekeepers to democracy" in both countries. In 1998, the State Bar of Texas Department of Law Related Education Association, Inc., joined the Florida-Hungary partnership.

Since the program's inception, officials from the Florida Supreme Court and The Florida Bar have served as delegates in the Civitas Ex change Program. Past Bar Presidents John Frost, John Devault, and Howard Coker, Florida Bar Board member Jack Brandon, former Supreme Court Justice Gerald Kogan, and current Chief Justice Major B. Harding have all participated in the program. These "gatekeepers to democracy" have traveled to Hungary to represent the role of the American legal community in civic education and have met with secondary students, university students, law school professors, lawyers, judges, and members of Parliament. They have discussed controversial issues such as the death penalty and jury trial (Hungary has neither) while Visiting law schools, and they have participated in "hands-on" teacher training activities. At home, they have met with visiting delegations to discuss judicial independence and the administration of justice in Florida and the United States.

Chief Justice Major Harding traveled to Hungary in July 1999 with a group of university faculty and master teachers to take part in a joint Hungarian-American teacher training institute. Forty-seven teachers from throughout Hungary attended the week-long summer institute which focused on combining civic education content knowledge with interactive teaching strategies for classroom application. The content areas included principles of democracy, teaching democratic constitutionalism, democratic communication skills, and civic and economic education for democracy. The emphasis on classroom applications incorporated methods from Florida's law-related and civic education programs. Many practicing teachers trained under the socialist regime have no formal training in teaching methodologies. The prevailing objective of Hungarian schools is still disciplinary knowledge versus the development of skills and attitudes, and the prevailing method of instruction is still lecture-based.

Beyond teacher training, our citizenship education activities have focused on student-based applications that foster the development of a democratic ethos. One example of such a program is the Polgar a Demokraciaban--Citizen in a Democracy student academic competition. The program is based on the American We the People ... The Citizen and The Constitution curriculum which is the preeminent constitutional studies program in the United States. During the first year of the exchange program, Civitas-Hungary officials visited Florida and observed the We the People program. They were so impressed with the students' knowledge of the Constitution and Bill of Rights that the decision was made to develop and implement a similar constitutional studies program in Hungary.

Focusing on the unique conditions of a re-emerging democracy, the Citizen in a Democracy program is uniquely Hungarian and emphasizes constitutionalism, politics, and human rights. Students must read, write, discuss, debate, and engage in group and individual problem-solving tasks. In 1999, the program's third year, over 1,000 students and 250 teachers participated in the program. An evaluation conducted in 1998 by researchers from the University of Central Florida found, "The competition clearly reflects higher order and critical thinking skills that are found in most higher levels of established teaching and assessment taxonomies."(5) The evaluation also determined that students felt that the competition improved their knowledge and skills related to understanding Hungarian democracy, improved their attitudes toward that democracy, and increased their political tolerance. The now nationwide program has received extensive media coverage throughout Hungary and enjoys support from leading political figures, including the Lord Mayor of Budapest, members of Parliament, and the President of the Republic.

Another initiative gaining momentum in Hungary is "Project Citizen." This American-based public policy studies framework for middle school students was translated and implemented in Hungary in 1998-99. Focusing on issues of local concern, students identify public policy issues, research the causes or conditions of the issue, develop alternative solutions, evaluate those solutions, and then attempt to implement a change in the current policy. The program is extremely beneficial in Hungary for two reasons. First, students gain valuable skills on how to interface with governmental entities as citizens. After 10 years of democracy, many individuals still do not understand their rights or responsibilities as citizens and many lack the skills necessary for basic interaction with government. Second, no such civic education program existed for students in this age group. This "hands-on" application of active citizenship is breaking new ground in the Hungarian curriculum. Over 300 students participated in the pilot program this year.

Conclusion

Today, 117 of the world's 191 countries are electoral democracies, a figure representing 61 percent of the world's countries and nearly 55 percent of its population. At a minimum, an electoral democracy requires that "all elected national authority must be the product of free and fair electoral processes." From 1989 to 1999, the number of electoral democracies in the international system increased from 69 to 117, an unprecedented era of growth and optimism.(6) But this increase in procedural democracy has not been accompanied by a corresponding increase in the levels of freedom and civil liberties around the world.

Numerous democratically elected governments have ignored constitutional limits on their power and denied their citizens basic rights. The regimes in Yugoslavia and Peru stand out as prime examples. According to a recent report by Freedom House, less than half of the world's 191 countries were rated "free," which means "that they maintain a high degree of political and economic freedom and respect for basic civil liberties."(7) Another 53 countries (28 percent of the world's countries) received a rating of "partly free" and 50 countries (26 percent of the world's countries) that deny their citizens basic rights of freedom and civil liberties were rated as "not free."(8) As you can see, the development of a liberal democracy--a system which not only holds fair, free and open elections, but also is bound by a constitution and defined by the rule of law, the separation of powers, and the protection of basic civil liberties--has proved to be a much more difficult process.

Support for civic education in new and established democracies is gaining momentum around the world. Civic education is understood to play an important role in the development of the political culture required for the establishment, maintenance, and improvement of democratic institutions. Civic education provides individuals with the knowledge, skills, and dispositions required to participate as informed and responsible citizens in a democracy. As Aristotle stated, "If liberty and equality, as is thought by some, are chiefly to be found in democracy, they will be attained when all persons alike share in the government to the utmost." Today, apathy, ignorance, and cynicism hinder the fulfillment of the ideals of democracy around the world by limiting widespread civic participation. The Florida Law Related Education Association, Inc., welcomes the continued involvement of "gatekeepers to democracy" from Florida's legal community in advancing the cause of law-related and civic education at home and abroad. Together, judges, lawyers, and educators can ensure that "all persons alike share in the government to the utmost."

(1) For more information on the national administration of Civitas: An International Civic Education Exchange Program contact Center for Civic Education, 5146 Douglas Fir Rd., Calabasas, CA 91302-1467; telephone: [phone]; facsimile: 818/591-0527; e-mail: [e-mail]; Internet: www.civiced.org.

(2) Visit http://www.civnet.org for additional information on Civitas International.

(3) For additional information on the Florida-Hungary-Texas Civitas partnership, contact The Florida Law Related Education Association, Inc., 1625 Metropolitan Circle, Suite B, Tallahassee 32308; telephone: [phone]; facsimile: 850/386-8292; e-mail: [e-mail]; Internet: www.flrea.org.

(4) To learn more about Civitas-Hungary visit the association's bilingual (English and Hungarian) web-site at www.civitas.hu.

(5) Jeffrey W. Cornett, Charles D. Dziuban, and Patsy Moskal, An Evaluation of "Citizen in a Democracy", unpublished manuscript, The Florida Law Related Education Association, Inc., Tallahassee (1998).

(6) Adrian Karatnycky, The Comparative Survey of Freedom 1989-1999 in Karatnycky, ed. FREEDOM IN THE WORLD: THE ANNUAL SURVEY OF POLITICAL RIGHTS AND CIVIL LIBERTIES 1998-1999 (1999) at 3.

(7) Id. at 1.

(8) Id.

Ernest Abisellan is associate director of administration and international affairs with The Florida Law Related Education Association, Inc. He oversees the association's international citizenship education initiatives and has traveled extensively in Hungary over the past two years in support of the Civitas Exchange Program. He graduated from Furman University with a B.A and holds a M.S. from Florida State University.