Legitimisation of Political Action as an Opportunity of Civic Education

The proposed paper argues that it is crucial for democracies to enable a thriving discourse about values in society. This discourse is fed by diversity of political values, which therefore should be addressed by civic education. The thought behind this comes down to a certain understanding of political legitimation, seen as an ongoing process of justifying and assessing political behaviour (Baker 2001). In this understanding, a political entity is never completely legitimated or not, but always in a dynamic state of managing its overall acceptance (Dogan 1992). Assessing or justifying one’s political behaviour is based on criteria (Schneider et al. 2007). These criteria refer to political values which find their origin in political culture, but are ultimately products of the subjective interpretation of those political values (Steenbergen 2010). Thus, criteria for evaluating political behaviour varies, especially when diversity in society is growing. Because there is no natural inner hierarchy between criteria for evaluating political action, it is important to point out, discuss and acknowledge them for being criteria. The paper outlines these thoughts, and presents in this context the findings of a study in which 939 students of an upper level high school have been asked to measure the relevance of different arguments for or against political action (Girnus 2019). Barker, Rodney (2001) Legitimating Identities. The Self-Presentation of Rulers and Subjects. New York. Dogan, Mattei (1992) Conception of Legitimacy. In: Mary Hawkesworth/Maurice Kogan (ed.) Encyclopedia of Government and Politics. Volume 1. London/New York, 116-126.  Girnus, Luisa (2019) Politische Legitimation und politisches Lernen. Wiesbaden. Schneider, Steffen, Hurrelmann, Achim; Krell-Laluhova, Zuzana, Nullmeier, Frank, Wiesner, Achim, (ed.) (2010) Democracy's Deep Roots. Houndmills/Basingstoke. Steenbergen, Marco (2010) The New Political Psychology of Voting. In: Thorsten Faas, Kai Alzheimer, Sigrid Roßteutscher (ed.) Information - Wahrnehmen - Emotion. Wiesbaden, 13-32.