SEOUL -- Consensus is growing in the family of democratic nations that democratic civic education constitutes a pillar of democracy. I use the term "democratic civic education" because we know there exist less benevolent intentions behind "political education" than the promotion of democratic principles and the encouragement of citizens' participation in the political process.

One does not need to go far to find this: North Korea practices lifelong political indoctrination with the aim of perpetuating its dictatorial rule. In South Korea's dark age of authoritarianism, too, political education was a tool in the hands of the rulers to uphold their illiberal reign. It therefore comes as no surprise that to this day South Koreans insist on using the attribute "democratic" if they refer to what in the democratic world is simply known as civic education.

Democratic civic education is a lifelong process that starts in school and continues after primary, secondary and, in some cases, tertiary education. A special target-group of civic educators consists of individuals who have left the regular educational systems. Democratic civic education, to be effective, should be conceived as a never-ending process.

Importantly, this does not only pertain to so-called young or new democracies, but also holds true for what some South Koreans often refer to as "advanced democracies." In these supposedly consolidated democracies, such as Britain, Germany or the United States, all is not well with the state of democracy. Due to several factors, disenchantment with the democratic institutions has been on the rise there as well. One of the main tasks of civic education is to aggressively counter the potentially dangerous trend of political disillusionment in parts of the population.

Democratic civic education is even more important in young democracies such as South Korea. According to a recent survey published in the respectable Journal of Democracy, a substantial number of South Koreans are not convinced of the virtues of democratic rule:

"Only slightly more than half of the public in Korea say that democracy is always best," write the scholars. "Particularly striking is the substantial proportion of Koreans (about three in 10) who think that an authoritarian government should sometimes be preferable."

The pollsters also asked which goal South Koreans considered more important, democratization or economic development? The result is rather disheartening for those promoting democracy in this land: Exactly half the South Korean public said economic development is more important, and only one in seven chose democratization.

Experts agree that a special -- and sui generis -- challenge for democratic civic education in South Korea has all along been the state of national division on the Peninsula. The trauma of partition continues to overshadow public life, restricting open political dialogue and limiting political tolerance toward opinions believed to favor North Korea, which many South Koreans have been taught to consider their arch-enemy.

Due to this collective state of mind in the South, unimaginable challenges will likely arise in the course of Korean unification: At that time, a primary task will not only be to teach South Koreans to be more open-minded (and charitable) toward their Northern brothers and sisters. The truly Herculean challenge will be the education of the North Korean masses about democratic institutions and principles. Taking into account the German experience, the creation of "internal unity" may be the most crucial challenge in the unification process.

It is to the credit of the promoters of democratic civic education in South Korea that they have seriously studied the situation in postunification Germany and have started to deal with the socio-psychological dimensions of bringing together two extremely diverse societies of one national offspring after decades of separation.

Still, the authorities in this country could do much more in providing the financial and organizational framework for institutionalized nationwide civic education. It is encouraging that nongovernmental organizations have increasingly started to fill the void on their own initiative, organizing educational programs aimed at promoting democracy and liberal values and also more tolerance and understanding toward the North.

To succeed in the long run, this important effort of promoting and strengthening democratic awareness must not exclusively rely on the civil sector. The democratic state, too, has an important role to play.

Hardly any other society spends so much money on education per capita as South Korea. Considering the vast resources invested in education, budgets allocated for democratic civic education are negligible. It is high time the government invest more money in the democratic future of the Korean people.