The emergence of citizens who can collectively uphold democracy is not automatic but rather the outcome of education that strengthens civic attitudes. Today, lifelong civic education to foster a healthy civic culture has become especially important. With universities, civic society, and political parties failing to do their part in promoting civic education, what can be done to strengthen our self-efficacy in civic participation as well as our capacity to engage effectively in civic processes? Civic education - and more broadly, civic culture - must be established on the basis of consensus on the minimum criteria for such education, unconstrained by ideological bias or the current anti-intellectual climate. We should refer to the example of German civic education, built on the principles of non-partisanship, clarification of the issues, and capacity-building of the learner, to outline and put into practice programs of civic education that are suitable for modern lifelong learning needs.
