| The collaboration of the Ibn Khaldun Center and the Ratiu Center for Democracy is committed to promoting the values and behaviors historically associated with democracy, such as respect for our fellow human beings; personal honesty; faith in God, which manifests as humility and obedience to His laws; and tolerance of alternative individual and cultural views including one's successes and failures. We are looking at one's personal faith, rather than religion in particular, as we strive to be undogmatic and non-partisan, grounded in both social sciences and in civil society building practices to ensure the emergence and survival of democratic institutions. Our collaboration is not meant to preach democracy, as we do not claim to hold the ultimate truths about the nature of democracy, but instead discover and practice the values and principles of democratic behavior together as a community. By shifting individual values, through communal understanding, we hope our societies will peacefully evolve into not only an institutionally democratic society, but also behaviorally so as well. |
General Goals and Objectives:
· To empower and engage youth in critical debate and discussion
· To develop individual theoretical and practical perspectives on democracy and transition to democracy
· To promote awareness of how and if democracy works within one's own cultural setting, stressing on multi-cultural environments, while learning from the experiences of professionals
· To advance the understanding of responsibility, ethics and deontology, and democratic rules and procedures in a cross-cultural setting through experience
· To encourage volunteerism in local communities
The primary goal of the civic education program in Romania is to offer young
people an opportunity to encounter different aspects of democracy:
· as a theoretical model
· as a set of relevant personal experiences, related by visitors in each evening's gatherings
· as directly experienced by participants during their own participation through the two-weeks in the program
The secondary goal is to highlight the significance of participants'
involvement in local community life, working alongside village volunteers.