"The focus of this collection is not on the institutions of democracy [...]. Rather, the focus is on how persons use and are affected by educational institutions in public processes of decision making." (1) Um diese Bedeutung der Erziehung für Demokratisierungsprozesse herauszustellen, haben die Herausgeber - neben einigen wenigen Originalbeiträgen - eine Reihe von Artikeln neu zusammengestellt, von denen die meisten im "Comparative Education Review" der Chicago University Press erstmals veröffentlicht worden sind. Inhalt: 1. Global Limits of Democratization: Noel F. McGinn: Education, Democratization, and Globalization: A Challenge for Comparative Education (1996); Aaron Benavot: Education and Political Democratization: Cross-National and Longitudinal Findings (1996); Matthew Christenson / Edward Crenshaw: Democracy's Handmaiden: The Influence of Mass Education on Political and Economic Change (Originalbeitrag). 2. Transitions from Centralized Authority: Noel F. McGinn / Susan Street: Educational Decentralization: Weak State or Strong State? (1986); E. Mark Hanson: Democratization and Decentralization in Colombian Education (1995); Jim Carl: Parental Choice as National Policy in England and the United States (1994). 3. Post-colonial Transitions: Joseph W. Elder: The De-Colonization of Educational Culture: The Case of India (1971); Robert F. Lawson: The Evolution of Democratic Education in South Africa (Originalbeitrag); Erwin H. Epstein: The Peril of Paternalism: The Imposition of Education on Cuba by the United States (1987). 4. Transitions Under Socialism: Barry Sautman: Politicization, Hyperpoliticization, and Depoliticization of Chinese Education (1991); Jonathan Jansen: The State and Curriculum in the Transition to Socialism: The Zimbabwean Experience (1991); Sheryl L. Lutjens: Rectification, Participation, and Education in Cuba (1996). 5. Transitions From Socialism: Elena Lisovskaya: The Dogmatism of Ideology: Content Analysis of Communist and Postcommunist Russian Textbooks (Originalbeitrag); Antoinette Errante: Regaining Sight of Democracy in Mozambique (Originalbeitrag); Robert F. Arnove: Education as Contested Terrain in Nicaragua (1995).