Sigal Ben-Rafael Galanti with Paz Carmel and Alon Levkowitz
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Classic Western democracies (those of Western Europe and
the Anglophone world) view the teaching of civics as a policy instrument
through which liberal values, democracy, and even globalization
are introduced to future citizens, thus expecting to assure the persistence
of democracy. In present-day democracies in general, and mainly in non-
Western democracies, however, civics assumes other forms, including the
study of nationalism. This article analyzes innovations in the teaching of
civics in Israel by examining the changes in school textbooks that accompany
changing national leaderships. We highlight the current Israeli high
school civics textbook, written under a significantly rightist-religious
government. Assuming that civics textbooks express the political credo
of ruling elites, our findings suggest similarities between trends in Israel
and non-Western democracies, hinting at the fragility of democratization
in general and chiefly outside the West.
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