Content

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  • 1

    Before you begin

    • Basic information and guidelines
  • 2

    What is politics and why is it important?

    • Chapter content

    • Oh, that terrible thing called politics

    • ✍️ Classroom Exercise Suggestion: What does politics represent to me?

    • Public policies

    • Quiz 1: Test your knowledge!
  • 3

    Democracy

    • Chapter content

    • Classical democracy

    • Contemporary democracy

    • ✍️ Classroom Exercise Suggestion: Democracy in the EU and the World

    • Crisis of contemporary democracy?

    • Quiz 2: Test your knowledge!
  • 4

    Deliberative democracy

    • Chapter content

    • Potential solutions for the crisis of contemporary democracy?

    • What is deliberative democracy?

    • How does civic deliberation assist liberal representative democracy?

    • Examples of deliberative democracy around the world

    • ✍️ Pupil Activity Suggestion: Advantages, disadvantages and other forms of participation in democracy

    • Quiz 3: Test your knowledge!
  • 5

    Political participation of citizens

    • Chapter content

    • Citizenship status and active citizenship

    • Forms of civic participation

    • ✍️ Classroom Exercise Suggestion: Political participation examples presentation

    • Youth participation

    • ✍️ Pupil Activity Suggestion: How does democracy function in our school?

    • Quiz 4: Test your knowledge!
  • 6

    Before the end :)

    • 📌Sources and references used in the creation of the webinar

    • 📂Sources of images

    • Impressum

About the project

Many adolescents and young people in Europe are not apolitical; they organize themselves and protest on the streets. However, it is noticeable that for some time now, they have not resorted to traditional forms of organizing, such as associations, parties, and unions, when choosing forms of political organization.

The question arises: What measures can help, especially in relation to young people, to regain trust in representative democracy and to possibly decide on long-term engagement at the institutional level?

"Citizens' councils" (mini-publics) offer starting points for restoring the trust of young citizens in representative democracy so that they can decide on their long-term commitment at the institutional level.

Partner organizations in Austria (Demokratiezentrum Wien, Institut für Konfliktforschung, and Volksschule St. Andrä Höch), Germany (Leibniz Universität Hannover and Mehr Demokratie e.V.), and Croatia (Gong and Gimnazija Pula) have combined their practical, scientific, and didactic-methodological knowledge and joined forces in a project called MANTA.

The aim of the project is to improve the professional competencies of teachers in schools to address political participation more frequently in the classroom and to enable students to think critically and make informed judgments about politics and their right to participate in the political process independently.

This approach contributes to the development of students' civic competencies and provides them with differentiated knowledge about the possibilities of political participation. Special emphasis is placed on modes such as "Citizens' councils" (mini-publics), which offer starting points for restoring the trust of young citizens in representative democracy so that they can decide on their long-term commitment at the institutional level.

During the 30-month project period, the project consortium develops various results (outputs-webinars, compendia, podcasts) for further teacher training - regarding the topics of political participation and "citizens' councils" (mini-publics).

We are glad you are here - welcome!