Democracy is a political system based on the principle of the people’s collective will, through which all important decisions for the community are made. However, to make an informed choice, vote for the most helpful candidate for the country, support policies, or resist destructive trends, it is necessary to have the appropriate knowledge and skills. At the same time, in theory, all participants in the democratic process should possess these talents, without any exceptions. Otherwise, the principle of equal influence of participants will be violated. Therefore, if this wording is approached as accurately as possible, democracy cannot be entirely successful without the complete preparation of all participants for the process’ specifics. According to this logic, it is impossible to achieve true democracy without an actively developed educational system, and education is indeed the guarantor of the security of this system.
From my point of view, this perspective is somewhat idealistic, but not without common sense. This can be proved by looking at the state structure of modern developed countries, the vast majority of which consider themselves democratic. However, practically in each of them, one can find elements that undermine the foundations of the democratic process. An example is propaganda campaigns that influence people with insufficient education and incline them to the advantageous side of a party. At the same time, each of these countries has a high-quality system of accessible secondary and higher education. Therefore, although the factor of education is crucial for making a wise choice, at the moment, the education provided is not enough. In this case, it seems to me right to reformulate education not only as a system of knowledge but also as an opportunity to independently analyze information and make decisions based on one’s own opinion.
Unfortunately, such elements are rarely taught in educational institutions since schools and universities often instill a specific view of the world. Consequently, education in its broadest sense is not the only real guarantee of democracy. To achieve ideal conditions for equality, it is also necessary to increase the social responsibility of people and fight attempts to undermine the principle of the equal impact of people on the system. From my perspective, only by cultivating the skills of analysis, transferring the knowledge base through education, and increasing the responsibility of people to society, can one approach the ideals of democracy.