The debate over civic education : its place in populist rhetoric

Abstract

The paper aims to elucidate the relationship between populist rhetoric and civic education, examining the political value the latter holds for the former. The paper addresses some of the major issues raised in the discussion around civic education emerging in the second half of the twentieth century and, again in the 2010s. The research thus centres on the different general interpretative frameworks approaching the core concepts of the civic education curricula. This leads the study to analyse populist rhetoric by contemplating what ‘populism’ might mean, yielding thereby a functional characterization of populist rhetoric and illustrating its link to civic education. Finally, the paper addresses the case studies of Vox and Unidas Podemos, Spain’s respectively right-wing and left-wing main populist parties.