DEMOCRATIC EDUCATION AS AN IMPORTANT FUNCTION OF THE STATE (IMPLEMENTATION OF THE INTEGRATED DEMOCRACY COURSE FOR HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS)

Abstract

Ukrainian society is focused on European integration, democratic values, and tradition. Therefore, it forms the requests to the state to ensure democratic education. Since 2018, the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) has begun implementation of a training course for active citizenship «Democracy: from Theory to Practice» in the educational programs of Ukrainian higher educational institutions. The experience of teaching this course as an integrated compulsory course in democracy for all specialties at Sumy State University can be useful for higher educational institutions in Ukraine. The purpose of this article is to create a theoretical model to enhance effectiveness of teaching the democratic values, principles, and mechanisms of democratic participation by increasing knowledge about the functions of the state in a democratic society. The research methods complex that applied covers the analysis, synthesis, generalization, comparison for to identify the points where knowledge of the functions of the state can intersect with the course structure proposed by IFES. The methods of the historical-genetic, structural and functional analysis were used to incorporate the necessary knowledge about functions of the state into the basic structural blocks of the course. The introduction of the integrated democracy course in the educational curricula of higher educational institutions in Ukraine is considered as a possible and necessary way of forming civic competencies among student youth. The external and internal factors that impact on the democracy course content have been identified. These factors contribute to the transfer of the global context of protecting democracy to the structure of the course, require integrated training, impact the predominance of the activity component in teaching methods over cognitive. The conclusions of the study show the importance of the state in ensuring civic competencies in the educational curricula of higher education institutions. The need to include knowledge of the functions and functioning of the state into the model of the training democracy course for responsible citizenship has been proven. The basis for the successful exercise by the state of the function of democratic education should be enhanced cooperation with other stakeholders in the educational process.