Democracy can be defined as rule by the people through free and fair elections. Learn more about the central role of the governed in this episode!

Center for Civic Education

Democracy originated more than 2,400 years ago in ancient Greece. The word democracy means rule by the people. Learn more about what this means in this episode!

Center for Civic Education

Political authority is the right to make and enforce binding rules known as laws. While political power is the ability to persuade others to follow the policies of those who hold power, authority adds legitimacy to the exercise of this power. Learn more in this episode!

Center for Civic Education

What is authority? What is the difference between authority and power? Learn about this difference in today's episode!

Center for Civic Education

Today on the podcast we begin a series that explores the basic elements of democracy. We begin with a look at politics which is found wherever people live together. Listen for more!

Center for Civic Education

In light of criticisms raised in the previous episode, we explore why people support civil disobedience as method for justice.

Center for Civic Education

While civil disobedience was promoted by many, critics argue that civil disobedience is never justified because it is an attack on constitutional democracy. Learn more about these criticisms in this episode!

Center for Civic Education

Participants in the struggles against slavery, the woman suffrage movement, and the civil rights movement all used civil disobedience to advocate change. This brief series on civil disobedience, we start by discussing the prominent figures in promoting civil disobedience throughout modern history.

Center for Civic Education

In our final episode of this special series, we discuss Martin Luther King Jr.'s sixth principle of nonviolence that the universe is on the side of justice. King believed that every person who believes in nonviolent resistance believes somehow that the universe in some form is on the side of justice. Learn more about this final principle in this episode!

Center for Civic Education

In our fifth episode, we discuss Martin Luther King Jr.'s next principle of nonviolence that nonviolence chooses love instead of hate. King emphasized that nonviolence meant not only renouncing physical violence, but also the avoidance of hatred what he called the internal violence of the spirit. Listen for more!

Center for Civic Education