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" TEN PROPOSITIONS DEMOCRACY IS ABOUT : 1. Freedom Human flourishing is achieved through freedom to act individually and collectively, only constrained by due consideration for others. 2. Equality All people are of the same moral worth and are obliged to mind the equality of others. 3. Justice Justice and democracy are interdependent. An unjust society is an undemocratic society and an undemocratic society breeds injustice. 4. Solidarity Shared aims and values arise from the pursuit of common purposes and mutually supportive ways of living. 5. Diversity Dialogue between different cultures and identities can enrich society and help to build a common culture. 6. Accountability The state is accountable to its citizens for providing the policy framework within which judgements about the common good are made and contested. Those who hold power are answerable to the people. 7. Dialogue Democracy requires dialogue and the possibility of dissent.This means learning to argue, articulate beliefs, deliberate and come to collective decisions concerning what constitutes the good society. 8. Responsibility Consistency and coherence between private and public behaviour are essential to the quality of democratic life. 9. Participation Democracy is something to be negotiated from below rather than handed down from above. Citizens require the opportunity to talk back to the state. 10. Sustainability A commitment to the environment and to future generations requires determined opposition to those forces which are wasteful and destructive. TEN PROPOSALS LEARNING FOR DEMOCRACY MEANS : 1. Taking sides Educational workers are not merely enablers or facilitators.The claim to neutrality can reinforce and legitimise existing power relations. Practitioners need to be clear about what they stand for - and against. 2. Acting in solidarity Practitioners should proactively seek opportunities to engage in a critical and committed way with communities and social movements for progressive social change. 3. Taking risks Critical and creative learning is necessarily unpredictable and open-ended. Exploring official problem definitions and challenging taken-for-granted ways of thinking can be a liberating process. 4. Developing political literacy Politics needs to be made more educational and education made more political. Learning to analyse, argue, co-operate, and take action on issues that matter requires a systematic educational process. 5. Working at the grassroots Democracy lives through ordinary people’s actions; it does not depend on state sanction. Practitioners should be in everyday contact with people on their own ground and on their own terms. 6. Listening to dissenting voices Activating democracy is a process of creating spaces in which different interests are expressed and voices heard.Dissent should be valued rather than suppressed. 7. Cultivating awkwardness Democracy is not necessarily best served by the conformist citizen. This means that the educational task is to create situations in which people can confront their circumstances, reflect critically on their experience and take action. 8. Educating for social change Collective action can bring about progressive change. Learning for democracy can contribute to this process by linking personal experience with wider political explanations and processes. 9. Exploring alternatives Learning for democracy can provide people with the opportunity to see that the status quo is not inevitable – that‘another world is possible’. 10. Exposing the power of language The words used to describe the world influence how people think and act. Learning for democracy involves exploring how language frames attitudes, beliefs and values." Learning for Democracy Group Scotland 2008