Political literacy: the state and education

The chapter is structured in two parts. The first part – merely as an example – traces a few ideas on the connection between state and education from antiquity to the present day. This should illustrate the fundamental public divergence of notions on policy issues involving the meaning of education and the state’s role in educating its citizenry. The second part discusses the commonly evoked (but seldom critically questioned) importance of education within a democratic form of state