Engaging Young People in Civic Life

9. Civic Education in Europe: Comparative Policy Perspectives from the Netherlands, Belgium, and France

219 9 Civic Education in Europe Comparative Policy Perspectives from the Netherlands, Belgium, and France Marc Hooghe and Ellen Claes In recent years, various policy initiatives have been implemented to strengthen the importance of civic education in European countries. The Council of Europe even proclaimed 2005 to be the “European Year of Citizenship through Education,” in an effort to harmonize the efforts of its member states. The Council also claimed that European liberal democracies share a specific political culture that would benefit from a harmonized approach to civic education. In reality, however, European countries tend to hold on to their own national legacies and the specific national characteristics of their education system. In general, little attention is given to the process of European unification in the curricula for civic education (Quintelier and Dejaeghere, 2008). In most countries , national political institutions and the specific national culture remain the most important reference frame for civic education. Although various authors have emphasized the need to establish a European form of citizenship and belonging , in practice we see little progress toward this goal in the field of civic education (Torney-Purta, Schwille, and Amadeo, 1999). What European countries do have in common, however, is that they too have emphasized the importance of civic education in recent years, partly as a reaction to the growing concern about an alleged erosion of citizenship norms among young people. While some countries have implemented specific new courses on political education, in other education systems decision makers have opted for a broader formulation of educational goals that are not connected to any specific course. A further complicating factor is that while governments 220 EngagingYoung People in Civic Life usually have a direct impact on the curriculum of public schools, this is not necessarily the case for private schools enjoying a larger degree of autonomy. In this chapter we try to develop a comparative perspective by documenting the recent development of civic education in the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. Citizenship Education in a Unified Europe The process of European unification creates a unique setting for civic education. Since the 1950s, European unification has been implemented mainly as a topdown initiative, where political leaders and business elites have taken the lead to develop an ever closer union between the member states. Since the 1990s, however, concern has grown about a perceived lack of legitimacy of the European institutions. Turnout during elections for the European Parliament has declined dramatically and in some countries barely exceeds 30 percent of the electorate. Referenda on constitutional reform usually show a strong degree of Euroskepticism or even downright hostility toward the European Union among the population. The latest three referenda on European institutions—in France, the Netherlands, and Ireland—all resulted in a resounding defeat for the supporters of European unification. One of the main reasons for this lack of legitimacy is the democratic deficit of the European Union: despite the direct elections for the members of the European Parliament, European citizens can exert only a limited impact on the decision making process within the European Union. Despite various reforms, most of the power still resides with the Council of Ministers, where the national governments have the final say. Since the 1990s, the European Union has tried to install more direct rights for European citizens, but ten years later, a deep Euroskepticism still prevails. One of the basic problems for the efforts to promote European citizenship is that there is no such thing as a common European identity or citizenry. Various surveys demonstrate that the “sense of belonging” to a common European political sphere is limited in most of the member states. Linguistic, economic, and cultural cleavages within the European Union imply that a national sense of identity exists in most member countries. Various authors, therefore, have claimed that the real challenge is to develop a sense of European citizenship beyond the borders of the traditional nation-states (Delanty, 2007). The challenge of European citizenship is that unity and diversity need to be reconciled: the 27 member states start from diverging cultural and religious backgrounds, and language barriers often prevent the development of a joint European identity. MarcHoogheandEllenClaes 221 Although the European Union itself produces various educational materials on the functioning of the European institutions, one cannot help but notice that the reaction of educational systems and teachers is lukewarm. Although civic education is often invoked as a way to “create” a sense of...