¹University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Abstract

Contemporary political educators seek to elicit critical self-reflection (autonomy) alongside the commitments, affections, and dispositions that make democracy possible (democratic affect). The liberal ambition to develop a society in which each individual freely chooses a democratic polity, meaning chooses it with full knowledge, requires the improbable creation of the philosopher-democrat. By focusing their attentions on the practice of implementing a liberal society, political educators have revealed the extent to which it is beyond their reach.