Democratic Education

"The finest contribution to the literature on democratic education of the last seventy years."

--Mark Yudof, Ethics

"A small masterpiece of political theory with implications far beyond the educational context."

--Suzanna Sherry, University of Texas Law Review

"Gutmann has created a theory of extraordinary coherence, comprehensiveness, and depth."

--Alison M. Jaggar, The Philosophical Review

"Dr. Gutmann attempts to construct a democratic theory of education with great conceptual clarity and good common sense.... Democratic Education belongs in a liberal tradition that goes back to the birth of the Republic.... It is a tradition that began with the founders and is represented today by people like Thomas Nagel and John Rawls. It is the America de Tocqueville celebrated."

--The Times Higher Education Supplement

"Amy Gutmann has written a courageous book.... One of Gutmann's most remarkable successes is her ability to sustain a principled argument through a dazzling range of issues of great moment and complexity."

--Herbert M. Kliebard, Academe

"Democratic Education is unusual in offering a specifically political theory of education.... [The theory] is rigorously deployed and its practical implications are conscientiously demonstrated in close, welldocumented and instructive discussion of controversial issues in the politics of American education.

--Jean Floud, The Times Literary Supplement

Submitted by the Publisher, April, 2002

Who should have the authority to shape the education of citizens in a democracy? This is the central question posed by Amy Gutmann in the first booklength study of the democratic theory of education. The author tackles a wide range of issues, from the democratic case against book banning to the role of teachers' unions in education, as well as the vexed questions of public support for private schools and affirmative action in college admissions.

Preface to the Revised Edition
Introduction : Back to Basics


1 States and Education
2 The Purposes of Primary Education
3 Dimensions of Democratic Participation
4 The Limits of Democratic Authority
5 Distributing Primary Schooling
6 The Purposes of Higher Education
7 Distributing Higher Education
8 Extramural Education
9 Educating Adults


Conclusion : The Primacy of Political Education
Epilogue : Challenges of Civic Minimalism, Multiculturalism, and Cosmopolitanism
Works Cited
Index