Republican Political Education

Abstract This chapter argues that today’s interest in republicanism and a neo-republican perspective should include a normative vision of political education which refers to various key concepts of the classical republican tradition, but also has a practical component described here as self-education. The vision that is offered sees politics as an activity of free persons, and political education as primarily self-education, a process of learning that aims at greater political awareness, empowerment, recognition of civic duty, and a better judgement on political issues. These are key practical remedies to the diminished role of the public good and the shallowness of politics in a liberal-democratic order. Republican political education is also as a significant contribution to the preservation of a free society as a necessary condition of active political and civic involvement, community service, citizenship, civic intelligence, and political liberty. It fosters the conception of a republican democracy of vigilant citizens by indicating the resources that shape such vigilance. One of them is the very awareness of the political, of being a member of various groups and communities that have political goals, such that can be achieved only through political arrangements, deliberation, and compromise.