The role of Education in Democracy can be traced back to the period during and after the World War I (WWI). At the start of the war, many people gave their support to the declaration of war, but still, a significant number opposed the war as a viable solution to contentious issues.
Propaganda was the tool of choice for many governments in a bid to win public support for the war. Public Information Committees led by top government official were set up to carry out the propaganda war. Much of the propaganda was aimed at creating emotional effects on the citizens rather than win factual support. The Information committee was able to manipulate the media by limiting the information accessed by the general public. This way, the public didn’t have much choice, but to believe the propaganda from the Public information committee.
Propaganda is in itself an aspect of education where the Public Information Committee provided some knowledge on the certain issues surrounding the war in order to win public support. This form of education raises the question of which is the best educational model that citizen should adopt and develop the underlying capacities in order to become a functional citizen, who contributes to the political sustainability of a nation.
According to Edward Bernay, through his book, Propaganda, the traditional education, propagated through old ideas, would help in creating democratic stability of a nation as each citizen would only learn only sufficient knowledge, which will make him or her not to form diverse opinions that are a threat to the stability of democracy. This idea is also supported by Walter Lippmann in his work Image of Democracy.
However, the idea of traditional education seems to be out of favor with John Dewey, through his work titled Experience. In His work, Dewey argues that Progressive Education is the education model that can guarantee democratic stability as the citizens of a nation will be equipped with the ability to judge leaders and their justifications on policies that they introduce and implement. The idea of progressive education is also supported by Mill, in the power Elite and also by Condit in the Rhetorical Limits of Polysemy. Given such divergent view which seems varied, a combination of both model of education would be necessary for stability in democracy.