International Partnerships for Civic Education and Democracy.

This theme issue of "The International Journal of Social Education" contains 11 articles all concerned with efforts to promote civic education in post-communist countries, particularly former Soviet-Bloc nations, including Latvia, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Russia. Described are international partnerships for civic education and democratic citizenship that have developed. One prominent example is Civitas: An International Civic Education Exchange Program, which is funded by the Office of Educational Research and Improvement of the United States Department of Education. Among the major articles are: (1) "Civic Education and the Advancement of Democracy in Latvia" (John J. Patrick; Valts Sarma); (2) "Civitas: An International Civic Education Exchange Program" (Charles N. Quigley; John N. Hoar); (3) "Education for Democratic Citizenship in Poland" (Richard C. Remy; Jacek Strzemieczny); (4) "Implementing New Civic Education Programs in Indiana and Post-Communist Countries" (Robert S. Leming; Thomas S. Vontz). This collection of articles expresses a global mission, shared by the U.S. contributors with their partners abroad, to act together to spread commonly desired blessings of liberty as extensively as possible among the diverse peoples of the world. (RJC)