Der Zustand der Demokratie und die Rolle der (Erwachsenen-)Bildung

The release of the results of a SORA public survey on Austrians’ awareness of democracy made large waves in the media in April 2017. The populace increasingly wants a strong leader. The editors of The Austrian Open Access Journal on Adult Education (Magazin erwachsenenbildung.at, Meb) took this opportunity to ask journalists concerned with the alarming developments in Western liberal democracies for their opinion and assessments. They were also asked to assess the influence of the education system in general and adult education in particular as well as the influence of the media. Two journalists responded: Lucian Mayringer from the Oberösterreichische Nachrichten newspaper and Jürgen Klatzer from the Kurier newspaper. Mayringer’s conclusion: the current trend toward populism in political parties and charismatic leaders is classified as problematic and comes from a “representation crisis” in which the citizen no longer feels represented by the established system. Mayringer sees the task of adult education as the completion of the democratic educational mission, whose foundation should already be laid in school and which must become even stronger. Klatzer goes one step further and advocates for schools to offer courses in “Political Education” (and media competence). He also sees adult education as being responsible for making us critical, mature citizens. (Ed.)