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Civic Education and Democratisation in the Eastern Partnership Countries Schriftenreihe Volume 1697 Dieter Segert (Ed.)

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Civic Education and Democratisation in the Eastern Partnership Countries Schriftenreihe Volume 1697 Dieter Segert (Ed.) Dieter Segert (Ed.) Civic Education and Democratisation in the Eastern Partnership Countries Band 1697 Band Dieter Segert (Ed.) Civic Education and Democratisation in the Eastern Partnership Countries Schriftenreihe volume 1697 Dieter Segert (Ed.) Civic Education and Demo cratisation in the Eastern Partnership Countries Bonn 2016 © Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung Adenauerallee 86, 53113 Bonn Manuscript editor: Anna Güttel-Bellert, Berlin Production editors: Hildegard Bremer, bpb, Lena Röllicke, bpb This publication does not constitute an expression of the views of the Federal Agency for Civic Education. Responsibility for the content lies with the authors. Cover design and typesetting: Naumilkat – Agentur für Kommunikation und Design, Düsseldorf Cover image: Yerevan, Armenia, May 31, 2006: Decapitated statue of Lenin in the court yard of the National Art Gallery. © Nick Hannes / laif ISBN: 978-3-8389-0697-3 ww.bpb.de Inhalt Introduction 9 Dieter Segert Actors, opportunities and obstacles in civic education and democratisation in the Eastern Partnership countries 11 Civil society and political education in the democratisation process in the Eastern Europe after 1989 25 Hans-Jürgen Misselwitz Civic education in an era of social transformation 27 Krzysztof Kacuga Civic education in schools in the light of Poland’s integration in the European Union 45 Matthias Freise From boom to consolidation: directions in the development of civil society in East Central Europe 55 Civil society and the new media in the South Caucasus 67 Yevgenya Jenny Paturyan Armenian civil society: it’s not all about NGOs 69 Rashad Shirinov Civil society in Azerbaijan: testing alternative theories 76 Lia Tsuladze Civic engagement via social media in Georgia 83 Inhalt Civil society as an actor of political education in Ukraine 89 Susan Stewart Civil society in Ukraine: structure, environment and developmental trends 91 Susann Worschech From Maidan to the parliament, from Maidan to the provinces: new paths for Ukrainian civil society 98 Tatiana Zhurzhenko Memory wars in post-Soviet Kharkiv 102 Sergiu Musteat, ă The history of teaching in Ukraine: two decades of public, academic and political debates 123 Relations between state and civil society actors in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus 139 Dmytro Myeshkov Politics of history in Ukraine since the change of government in the spring of 2014 141 Konstantin Kehl / Benjamin Kummer / Volker Then How can Russian civil society be supported in turbulent times? Responses from a stakeholder survey 151 Jussi Lassila Pitfalls of the Kremlin’s vox populi: the Russian People’s Front 162 Bertelsmann Foundation Belarus country report 170 Paula Borowska Non-formal education in Belarus: unleashing the potential of civil society 174 Inhalt Andrii Portnov The “Great Patriotic War” in the politics of memory in Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine 179 External influences on political education and transnational exchange 199 Hanna Vasilevich The Eastern Partnership Initiative: 5-year results and future perspectives 201 Volodymyr Yermolenko Russia, zoopolitics, and information bombs 213 Helga Zichner How can you grow an English lawn in Moldova? Reflecting on the reasons for establishing and participating in the Erasmus Mundus programme of the European Union 220 Grigor Yeritsyan The role of the EU in the development of civil society in Armenia 249 Introduction Dieter Segert Actors, opportunities and obstacles in Civic education and democratisation in the civic education and democratisation in Eastern Partnership countries the Eastern Partnership countries Democracy and civic education belong together. Democracy requires polit- ically mature citizens. It requires their activity and the defence of its prin- ciples. The aims of civic education are to spread and increase knowledge in civil society about how politics work and to support citizens’ resolve to take matters of common concern into their own hands.1 In post-social- ist Eastern Europe, there are two additional factors that contribute to the urgency of civic education: 1. Only democratic states are willing to support non-partisan civic edu- cation rather than propaganda and “PR” designed to further the inte- rests of the ruling elite. 2. Civil societies, still inexperienced and ill informed after the demise of authoritarian regimes, have a particular need to improve their capacity for political action. The first section below analyses the development of democracy since 1989/1991 in Eastern Europe, which gives rise to the conditions in which civil society development and civic education take place. The paths of development taken by countries in the various regions of post-socialist East- ern Europe are quite diverse;2 in the sub-region under special consider- ation here, made up of the six countries of the Eastern Partnership (Arme- nia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine),3 democracy started from a weak position. The second section of this introduction addresses the specific challenges involved in civic education in the countries of the Eastern Part- nership: the intensive politics of history (Geschichtspolitik), the new authori- tarianisms that have emerged, and the “managed civil societies” associated with them; it then turns to the opportunities and limitations associated with external funding of civil society activities. I discuss briefly the relationship between civic education and sustainable democratisation in my conclusion. 11 Dieter Segert My preface introduces a collection of papers evaluating different aspects of this relationship. The first section considers specific examples that shed light on experiences with civic education in the countries of Central East- ern Europe after the start of democratisation. The experiences of those countries should allow conclusions to be drawn about the links between civic education and democratisation that apply to the entire post-social- ist space. The focus in the second section then shifts to civil society and new media in the South Caucasus, i.e. in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Geor- gia. The texts collected in the third section analyse certain aspects of Ukrainian civil society of current relevance. Then the focus shifts again to texts depicting the complex relationship between state and non-state actors in the field of civic education in Russia and the three westernmost coun- tries of the Eastern Partnership (Moldova, Ukraine and Belarus). The fifth and final section of the publication examines certain of the external influ- ences and aspects of transnational exchange in the context of civic educa- tion in the countries of the Eastern Partnership. The winding paths of democracy and de-democratisation in post-socialist Eastern Europe In 1989 it all seemed simple: freedom, prosperity and democracy were the order of the day. The state-socialist dictatorships had lost the support of their populations. Europe, it seemed, was en route to becoming something beyond merely a synonym for Western Europe: the European Communi- ties, later the European Union, wanted to overcome Europe’s East-West divide by admitting new members. A total of 11 countries in Eastern and Southeast Europe were admitted as new members in 2004, 2007 and 2013. The enthusiasm of the “annus mirabilis” has since given way to a cer- tain disillusionment. This has become evident in the various regions of what was formerly homogenous Eastern Europe: one hears talk of “dem- ocratic fatigue” 4, and of “four worlds of post-socialism”. The countries of East Central Europe have been part of the EU since 2004 and have – indi- vidual deficits notwithstanding – established democratic orders; the coun- tries of South Eastern Europe (the EU members Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania above all) are, somewhat belatedly, following the same path; cer- tain chances for democratisation still remain in four of the countries in the post-Soviet space (including Moldova, Georgia and Ukraine; the fourth is Kyrgyzstan); in the other post-Soviet countries authoritarian regimes of various types of have developed (Stykow, nd.). 12 Civic education and democratisation in the Eastern Partnership countries Below I will concentrate on outlining the structural conditions of polit- ical development impeding democratic development in the post-Soviet countries of the two groups mentioned last above. These conditions should be taken into account in civic education activities there. Only then can civic education live up to its own potential for supporting the capacity of civil society to act. Democracy means more than holding free elections By the late 1990s, it was already evident to political scientists that the de­­ mocracy promotion policy of the West had not achieved all of its objectives. This failure was due, in part, to ill-chosen priorities. This was a global problem, not one limited to Eastern Europe. Certain powerful players had chosen to concentrate on supporting and ensuring free and fair elec- tions (Carothers, 2002). Democracy requires more than just free elections, however. It cannot exist in the absence of functioning states that perform their tasks in the area of supporting the social and economic development of their societies. States must also be capable of fulfilling the expectations of their citizens. Moreover, democracy requires the sustained support of a politically minded and politically competent citizenry. Those are complex conditions that have not been met in many Eastern European societies. The result is a profound dissatisfaction and political apa- thy in the population that authoritarian
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