COMENIUS DENMARK
Definition
 Assumes people are inherently good (conceived by John
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Stuart Mill, 19th century)
Assumes democracy has MORAL purpose
Open-minded society
Develop civic participation
Aim: change cultures of poverty and despair into places
of agency, variety
Open space for development(s)
Who is the citizen?
 Agents of their own development
 Citizen as the co-creator of a democratic society, not as rightsbearing individuals whose highest act is voting
 Self-directing
 Should behave out of their interests or their values and not
because of external influence
“I am asking you not only to believe in my ability to make
change, I am asking you to believe in yours.” – Barack Obama
What are the main tasks?
 Developing civic agency
 Creating opportunities for all citizens to contribute their
talents, experience, and skills to the process of
developing a country (social justice)
→ collective action dimension
“[The] goal is not to put supporters to work but to enable
them to put themselves to work.“ – Tim Dickinson,
reporter for “Rolling Stone Magazine“
What is the method?
Organizing :
 Development cannot be done “to” people. People have to
become the agents of their own development
 Civic action with a strong focus on popular education to
develop skills and habits of civic agency
What is the government‘s role?
 Catalyze the process of political development
by passing laws, etc.
 Educate the citizens
 Secure and check the surrounding conditions
Who is the government worker?
 Civic partner
 Citizen who is interested in being actively involved in politics
 Organizer
 of public education through public work
 Catalyst
 Catalyze the process of developmental democracy
How is self-interest understood?
 Integrated and expanded with civic purposes through
work
→ people are interested in public goods
→ people want to shape state/democracy
as they want/for public goods
What is power?
Power of the citizens to …
 … elect a representative
 … express one’s opinion
 … choose how actively/in which way they participate in
politics
In comparison to other democratic systems, the citizen
has the most power.
Developmental
democracy
Who is the citizen?
Co-creator - solving
problems, co-creating
public goods
What are the main
tasks?
Developing civic
agency
What is the method?
Organizing
What is
government’s role?
Catalyst, resource,
convener
‘by the people`
Civic partner,
organizer, catalyst
Who is the
government worker?
How is self-interest
understood?
What is power?
Integrated and
expanded with civic
purposes through work
Power to
http://www.ihc.ucsb.edu/downloads/Boyte_Developmental_Democracy.pdf (30.06.2014)
Thank you for your attention!
The COMENIUS-group from Germany
Sources
 http://www.ihc.ucsb.edu/downloads/Boyte_Developm
ental_Democracy.pdf
 http://www.cios.org/EJCPUBLIC/006/2/00629.HTML
 AP Govt Theories of Democracy lecture.ppt