Civic Education and Learning Democracy: Their Importance for Political Participation of Young People

We experience politics in our daily life and in all social spheres. People, particularly young people, always see politics as a complex process. Often, politically interested and motivated citizens are confronted with the concepts ‘democracy’, ‘politics’ and ‘democratic elections’ in various newspapers or on TV news. Moreover, there are intense debates about democratic deficits, and an increase in extremism is feared if the civic education young people receive is not enhanced. For these reasons, I intend to address the questions of how knowledge about politics is effectively provided through civic education and to show the impact political commitment has on young people by discussing the concepts of civic education, learning democracy and political participation.