Engagement and proactivity of the general public in democratic process is essential for a stable and functional democracy. Participation of citizens in the political environment can be expressed by either elections or by other forms of political involvement. Current research shows that political participation requires skills, motivation to get involved and support of a group of public actors. Million Moments for Democracy is a civic organisation who support and cultivate political culture in Czechia. This work examines the supporters of the civic movement. The results show that the supporters is a group that has higher individual resources, higher political interest and distrust of the government. The supporters of the civic organisation more politically participate, especially in the activities that the organization emphasizes. The model of belonging to the association showed that the fact that the organisation was originally a protest movement cannot be ignored. Keywords political participation, electoral and non-electoral participation, civic movement, active citizens, demonstrations, petition, politics Title Participation of supporters of the civic association Million Moments in the democratic process

The purpose of the study is to investigate teachers’ perceptions regarding the task of raising pupils into democratic citizens. Therefore, I will investigate how teachers apply this task in teaching. Research shows that Swedish adolescents to a very small extent engage in democtatic processes, compared to other countries. At the same time, the amount of studies performed in Sweden is very limited regarding how teachers integrate the assignment of democracy in primary school, specifically in year 4-6. Thus, it sparked an interest in how teachers apply and include the civics subject. The study was conducted by a qualitative in terms of semi-structured interviews. Six teachers participated and everyone are currently teaching civics in grade 4-6. The theoretical approach has been based on John Dewey and pragmatism. The theory has been used in combination with previous research to analyze the statements of the respondents.   Firstly, the results show that teachers experience their role of educating democratic citizens as unique and important. They believe that there are great opportunities in affecting students' roles as democratic citizens. However, the teachers also describe certain difficulties while teaching about the democratic processes, since the subject is very complex. A large part in the complexity is that school accommodates many different individuals with various sociocultural backgrounds, perceptions and opinions about the world, which constantly needs to be addressed. Additionally, the teachers also experience that using assignments where students actively practice democratic participation should be given a larger share in school. The most effective way to practice this, according to the teachers, is by using communicative methods, e.g., conversations. Finally, the studies conclude that there is a need for developing the communicative parts in the education materials, especially concerning the democracy education. / Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur verksamma lärare ser på uppdraget att fostra demokratiska medborgare. Därför kommer jag att undersöka hur lärare applicerar detta uppdrag i undervisningen. Forskning visar att svenska ungdomar i mycket liten utsträckning engagerar sig i demokratiska frågor jämfört med andra länder. Samtidigt finns det en mycket begränsad forskning vad gäller hur lärare applicerar demokratiuppdraget i grundskolans årskurs 4-6. Det skapade ett intresse för hur lärare tillämpar och inkluderar demokratiuppdraget i ämnet samhällskunskap. Undersökningen genomfördes med en kvalitativ metod genom semistrukturerade intervjuer. Det deltog sex lärare, samtliga verksamma i ämnet samhällskunskap för grundskolans mellanår, årskurs 4-6. Den teoretiska ansatsen utgår från John Dewey och pragmatismen. Teorin har sedan tillsammans med tidigare forskning använts för att analysera och diskutera respondenternas utsagor.   Resultatet visar att lärare upplever sig ha en mycket viktig och unik roll i att fostra demokratiska medborgare. De anser att det finns stora möjligheter att påverka eleverna i deras medborgarskap. Lärare ser också vissa svårigheter i fostrandet då det stundtals är mycket komplext. En stor del i komplexiteten uppges vara att skolan rymmer många individer med olika sociokulturella bakgrunder, uppfattningar och åsikter om världen som alltid måste bemötas. Lärare uttrycker också att övningar där elever praktiskt tränar på det demokratiska deltagandet bör få en större plats i skolan. I resultatet framgår även att lärare ser kommunikativa metoder i form av samtal som den mest effektiva metoden. Resultatet visar på ett behov av att utveckla de kommunikativa delarna i läromedlen som riktar sig mot demokratiundervisningen.

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Under the 1990s restructuring of the Swedish education system, ‘the fundamentaldemocratic values’ have stipulated clearly both in the Education Act and all of thenational curricula as one of the educational goals. This study aims to illuminate how thefundamental democratic values in the Swedish curriculum for preschool are implemented,its process and outcome on a micro level, a preschool. The role of the preschools inSweden has been changed especially after the new curriculum has been issued in 1998, and now, “to impart and establish respect for human rights and the fundamentaldemocratic values” is an important task of the preschools and expected to “activelypromote” in its work with children. Through a qualitative case study focused on apreschool in Forest municipality, Stockholm, the findings show the principal and thepedagogue in the chosen preschool are conscious of the importance of the fundamentaldemocratic values within the individual perspectives. This study also illustrates that thepedagogue have developed their understanding for the fundamental values continuously,through the several types of meetings, and have applied it to their daily activities.Furthermore, the findings also show that the pedagogue in the chosen preschool haveutilised ‘the five value keywords’ those were selected in the school district where thepreschool belonged. As a whole the research on the chosen preschool indicates theimportance of role of pedagogue at preschool for implementation of the nationaleducation policy. On the other hand, this study has clarified that Forest municipality hashad important role for the implementation process and evaluation of preschools in themunicipality. This fact indicates that how municipalities take initiatives affects successfulimplementation of the curriculum. As concluding remarks, this study argue the results ofthe present research indicate that the chosen preschool has supplied opportunities for bothchildren and parents to learn/exercise deliberative democracy, that may be seeds to fosteractive citizen.