Main Current Problems of Education for Democratic Citizenship in Two EU Countries – the Netherlands and Bulgaria

Abstract

This publication is a result of the joint work of an Erasmus student from the Netherlands and a lecturer at Sofia University in Bulgaria as a host country. The present article investigates the main current problems of education for democratic citizenship (EDC) in two EU countries – The Netherlands and Bulgaria, from the point of view of: 1. the brief background of the tradition of democracy, constitutionalism and democratic citizenship in the two EU countries; 2. the structure of EDC in formal education, the most significant studies and the main requirements of the current legislation in each of two countries of EU. These points of view created the general framework for interpreting the state of the EDC in two countries. The summary from this research can be made that despite the different historical past and the different degree of democratization of the different national communities, today the two EU countries have similar goals and take similar state actions through the legislation for the development of the educational systems towards the sustainability of democratic values for civil society and the rule of law.