DEMOCRACY AND DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION
NOTE: Our page on democracy is under development. Please send us any good activities, exercises you know on democracy. We are particularly looking for learning exercises on consensus models, and skills in creating a true (as opposed to a false, power-based) consensus.
Particularly in the classroom situation we need to challenge the continuous use of "one man one vote" which creates losers and is thereby sometimes the source of concealed conflicts, and look for other forms for collective decision making. This involves not only raising the awareness of the often unjust consequences of a rigid application of "one man one vote", but also raising the level of debating skills.
These exercises are Word files. To load the file down onto your computer, right click and choose "save target as".
(we thank Wolf and Water, Mediation Services Oslo, and Save the Children Norway for permission to use many of their exercises)
The activities are marked with colour codes according to the age group they are suited to:
 - Primary (6 -9 years)
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 - Middleschool (10 –13)
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 - Secondary (14-16)
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 - College (17+)
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Desert island
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Raises students' consciousness about rules in society and mechanisms of governing in a democracy. |
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The Algeria Problem
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Stimulates reflection about how a democracy should work. |
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Build a society
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Stimulates reflection about values in a good society and how they are being protected. |
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Good and bad rules
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Has two aims; to try to create a classroom democracy and to visualise why democracy is important for human rights. |
Preparing for the Board Meeting
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Developing of debate technique: helps partcipants to develop their arguments for a debate step by step in a "safe" context before throwing them out into the "Board Meeting" to defend their stance. |