Universal Journal of Educational Research Vol. 5(12A), pp. 48 - 55
DOI: 10.13189/ujer.2017.051308
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The End of Democracy and the Modes of Resistance in Education

Carlos Sousa Reis ^1,*, Dores Formosinho ², Ágel García Del Dujo ^3
1 Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Coimbra, Portugal
² Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences/CEIS20, University of Coimbra, Portugal
³ Faculty of Education, University of Salamanca, Spain

ABSTRACT

Our scope is to show how democracy has been trivialized as a concept and, more worryingly, as a mystified practice of consented servitude, which supposedly would bring to its very end. In fact, for the emblematic occidental societies, democracy has, at the best, been reduced to a consumerist way of life, under the capitalist liberal order, and the façade of a 'spectacularized' electoral process. Overall, the word 'democracy' is currently used to mask different forms of authoritarianism, from which nor even western societies escape. In such context, as to the promises of democracy for schools' systems, we see nothing but a bureaucratic centralization, allowing no more than an instrumental autonomy of power of execution through which the players only enjoy a 'voluntary servitude' to the neoliberal naturalized ideology of efficiency, competitiveness and pseudo meritocracy. We thus conclude by suggesting possibilities of resistance and the empowerment of the subject.

KEYWORDS
Democracy, Voluntary Servitude, Resistance, Education, Struggles for Recognition

Cite This Paper in IEEE or APA Citation Styles
(a). IEEE Format:
[1] Carlos Sousa Reis , Dores Formosinho , Ágel García Del Dujo , "The End of Democracy and the Modes of Resistance in Education," Universal Journal of Educational Research, Vol. 5, No. 12A, pp. 48 - 55, 2017. DOI: 10.13189/ujer.2017.051308.

(b). APA Format:
Carlos Sousa Reis , Dores Formosinho , Ágel García Del Dujo (2017). The End of Democracy and the Modes of Resistance in Education. Universal Journal of Educational Research, 5(12A), 48 - 55. DOI: 10.13189/ujer.2017.051308.