Rethinking Far-Right Education Policies: Comparative Insights from Serbia and Georgia

This article analyzes the education policies of far-right parties in postcommunist Europe, focusing on Dveri in Serbia and Alt-Info in Georgia. Using case study methodology and content analysis of party manifestos and social media, the author identifies both convergences and divergences in these parties’ educational visions. Both advocate redistributive policies such as state-led financing, protection of small schools, and nationalist content centered on religion, family, and anti-LGBTQ+ themes. However, they diverge in their preferred style of governance: Dveri promotes decentralization and depoliticization, while Alt-Info favors centralized, top-down control. Both frame Western-led reforms, including the Bologna Process, as corrosive, and idealize the Yugoslav or Soviet era as “golden ages” of schooling, safeguarding cultural sovereignty. Additionally, the article argues that internationalization – how parties engage with or resist transnational education regimes – constitutes a distinct axis of far-right education politics. By comparing two non-European Union cases, the article highlights the broad implications of far-right education agendas.