The Greek Educational Policy Model towards the Reinforcement of Democracy: From the Marginalized Citizen to the Active Political Individual

The present study is an attempt to define the legalizing process of a differentiated operational model for schools, emphasizing and reinforcing democratic values. In this respect, new organizational forms of students and teachers are being proposed, aimed at formulating a bio-political environment characterized by new communication networks—of both social and personal appeal. These will be conducive to transforming authoritative structures and domination relations into democratic forms of organization, taking into consideration the individuals’ social and cultural subjectivity within their social environment. More specifically, explicit and implicit forms of domination and authority are transcended with a focus on the forming correspondence of structures and relations, rendering democracy a new interpretation regarding its social and political content. This proposal is expected to serve as an exemplary model for democratic education beyond the needs emanating from the Greek reality. The institutional organization and operation of the education bureaucratic mechanism is emphasized in order that schools operate as areas of consideration and political reflection on democracy.

words, even if they vote in elections, their role is still typical and marginalized without having the feeling of being participants in the political procedures.
It is proved by quantitative and qualitative researches that young citizens of 18-35 years old mainly, are those ones that are either distant from participation or, when participating, choose extreme right political parties while policies stated by these parties, such as racism against migrants, maximization of inequality at the expense of women, ongoing violence and adoption of choices conducive to disdaining the democratic institutions and deconstructing the political system are accepted.
The educational policy is imperative in formulated anti-democratic conditions, which reproduce anti-democratic stances and behaviors in order that the role and discourse is present by redefining its objectives and functions. The issue of formulating citizens who will respect the democratic institutions and will participate in politics disapproving of both the political marginalization and the totalitarian fascist choices are a matter of education.
In the present paper special emphasis is placed on a structured model of educational policy about democracy which, in terms of cross-curricular and interdisciplinary, will combine within the curriculum history and political culture as cognitive fields so that the value of democracy towards the reinforcement of equality as well as the development of the individuals' personality is elevated. It is about a concurrent paradigm towards the projected model of education conducive to market with special concentration on the awareness of democracy.
The negative consequences, as they are being currently experienced, do not allow people to envision their future as there is a general view that the future will be the same if not more negative than the present. For the first time the individual experiences a situation of personal cancellation and feels psychologically, socially and politically enfeebled to make life plans, as uncertainty and insecurity become the impediments towards the formulation of personal pursuits in a state which, under financial and political terms, has been left without the possibility to form its policy due to the monitoring and surveillance performed by the dominant European power, Germany (Note 4).
Along with the economic degradation, Greek citizens are concurrently experiencing national submission that is a nation-state disdaining condition as well as its institutions dynamics. Therefore, every discussion about democracy and equality becomes problematic because the individuals' association with the policy of rights (Note 5) is violently ceased. This achievement was the outcome of social and political struggles and was institutionalized by laws for protecting and maintaining equality and justice through the development of welfare state policies (Note 6) for the lower social strata that were given the right to improve their life within a political system which acknowledged their freedom and re-negotiated on their benefit the right in education and the possibility of social mobility (Note 7).
During the economic crisis the political system itself and the principles of democracy are under question by both native and migrant citizens who develop disdain attitudes and political indifference. Democracy is deemed to have been degenerated while they put forward political views and standpoints reinforcing the extreme right political parties the recent elections (Note 8) the extreme right political party expressing national-populism (Note 9) and an idiosyncratic form of party rejecting democracy while, at the same time, suggesting the violent political complete expression was observed to have been enhanced for the first time.
As regards the Greek education policy, the focal point of the educational system is on performing an information-knowledge transfer, emphasizing the examination model which has enfeebled the value framework pertaining to individual political and social survival within society and maximized existential insecurity, social uncertainty and people's indifference to politics.

Theoretical Educational Approaches to Democracy
Amidst the economic crisis, education is expected to manage issues tied to knowledge and the individuals' integration (Note 10) into society. From this perspective, in terms of humanism, the redefinition of concepts such as prosperity, success and progress (Note 11) is imperative. An underclass (Note 12) seems to be formulated, namely a group of people who are not part of the society. Shrinking opportunity structures are ascertained, in educational and social terms, and collateral losses for lower social strata seem to be insurmountable.
It is noteworthy that people hit during an economic prosperity period were those ones less favorable by the economic, social and political system. The impressive dimensions of social inequality cannot be evaluated by the educational system. Within the public school there are students experiencing marginalization, disdain and cancellation of individuality, being, at the same time, excluded from society.
People experienced the economic prosperity period, a value environment in which accessing the consuming society (Note 13) defined the constitution of their social status, since the concepts of success or failure were defined in terms of an economic-materialistic pattern of obtaining goods within a system of expanded needs.
Education is expected to form a value system anew, by re-approaching, in political terms, the concept of democracy, reconstructing the illusionary entity of society (Note 14), and formulating students' experiences within a democratic school environment (Note 15), in which the concept of the citizen will be redefined. Emphasis, therefore, is placed on institutions, attitudes and behaviors enhancement tied to school democratic operation. At this point, operational, institutional structures, either disdained or not legislated, are emphasized. In particular, reference is made to: 1) Teachers' Associations (Note 16), 2) Students' Communities, and 3) Mixed Boards of School and out-of-school representatives.
It is clear that policies advance towards organizing a democratic school by imposing principles and standpoints conducive to enhancing the articulation of opinion-viewpoint and reinforcing integration strategies into society, in political terms of participating and monitoring institutions and processes (Note 17). Within the educational environment, the reinforcement of political deliberation along with the concurrent reduction of leading experts and messianism (Note 18) attitudes are sought after, as the latter are reinforced through monitoring by educational system carriers, enhancing formal or informal types of violence. According to Freud (Note 19), it could be said that the educational truth is imposed by using any form of power, and, in political terms, systems of power are legalized along with the concurrent cancellation of democratic interaction processes. Thus, amidst a crisis period, with limited resources (Note 20), the policy of rights is enfeebled, while the opportunities redistribution is restricted for lower social strata.
It is evident that the issue of participation is crucial because it presupposes involvement in processes, joint responsibility, avoiding co-optation in individuality. Therefore, an education policy in common experience is required, so that, from a psychological point of view, fear is avoided and, from a social point of view, integration into society is pursued, despite the expected danger, pain and challenges  (Sennett, 1996). At this point, reference should be made to enhanced forms of deliberation (Note 21) on all levels of educational processes so as to construct a reinforcing system for citizens' society by restoring the debate about justice and humanism.
Nowadays, even if reference is made to a liberal form of education, schools operation is one-dimensional and is based on the restricting legal framework, which forms formal or informal leaderships with absolute devolution of non-controlled powers. Both teachers and students are trapped within an operation model in which their social rights have been informally deputed, as they have been transformed into performers of a group of responsibilities. In this respect, students have become the "consumers" of useful knowledge (Note 22) to be used only for examination purposes, while teachers have been disdained within an educational system in which they act as marginalized and enfeebled entities, amidst fluidity, with vague aims and objectives. At the same time, the education process moves on randomly, eventually aligned with the broader context of a mandated disorganization of the political system.

Rerecording Educational Principles in Education
It is clear that the It is observed that the educational system ought to confront the risk of political indifference as well as the risk of acceptance or legalization of the extreme right parties' standpoints. As a result, through the critical reading of the social and political changes, reference could be made to the restructuring of democratic discourse in education with a concurrent reinforcement of the same democratic principles with the function of school. The educational community should re-invest on the democratic ideals and institutions and re-orientate individuals towards the systems' democratic function (Note 27).
As regards the educational system, the co-operation among teachers-students and broader groups of population is deemed imperative so that the value of participatory action, the value of freedom and structured political discourse are perceived by all the participants, students mainly, by associating the model of democratic function with the superior form of the societies' organization that permits individuals to invest on freedom and equality (Note 28).
At the same time, properly selected chapters of History (Note 29) will reinforce the procedure of the students' political participation (Note 30) in the school boards and the action committees because the principles of democracy will be projected comparatively to the framework of function related to totalitarian regimes. More specifically, the actual principles and standpoints of fascism along with its consequences upon the individual and societies will be presented, mainly in the case of the Second World War. Giving information, utilizing the society of knowledge and new technologies will all be conducive to the cross-curricular and interdisciplinary approach of fascism and political totalitarianism placing emphasis on the phenomena of violence, inequality, counter-freedom, disdain of human personality and racism (Note 31) which are developed when the extreme right parties become politically strong and cancel the democratic institutions (Note 32).
Even though the educational system faces the economic crisis effect-as expenditures on education are falling, schools are being merged or suppressed, the material infrastructure is shrunk and the educational force is reduced-it is invited to assume a role by assisting the country to recover through the provision of useful knowledge conducive to innovation and development. In the political field, education should be conducive to reinforcing democracy so that citizens-natives and migrants-co-operate towards the development of financial conditions and during this ordeal, to prevent situations of confuting democratic principles, racism and political intimidation that eventually cancel humanism, equality and opportunities structures policies in favor of individuals and societies.
The educational system, through the cross-curricular and interdisciplinary approach, is able to form cognitive fields, teachers' historic-political information so that they are not encircled within an adoption of extreme right political choices. On the contrary, their menace should be transformed into a moving force of defending democratic principles and standpoints opening for the state the way towards development of welfare policies for the benefit of lower social strata, so that education along with the political system become collaborators in overcoming the economic crisis and preventing political crisis.

From Theory to Practice about Education
It is made well-understood that, contrary to the bureaucratic model of education-which emphasized rational behaviors, despite disdaining education-a more flexible model is suggested. According to it, people are operationally dependent. At the same time, political participation and integration are conducive to deconstructing the obsolete educational model, while micro-social factors are underpinned in favor of the maneuvers, even within the suffocating bureaucratic system. In other words, the concept of power is rephrased, as the educational community-with repetitive, participatory, planned in advance actions-invents and reinforces a form of "democracy of experiences". This is about a different version of political culture, in which individuals-groups and collectivities of the educational environment expand possibilities, redefine the educational process, re-utilize structures and operational relations which include democratic patterns in an internal settlement of procedural democratic structures.
It is noteworthy that in the model suggested hereby, the educational system is released from introversion,  Should it be misled and operate within the disintegrated political values, it is certain that "zero" education will be generated, to recycle ready cognitive packages in an educational setting without political subjects, since privacy and disdained institutions will maximize deregulation (Note 33), inequality and, eventually, will condescend education itself. At this point a question to the educational community is posed, as to whether they wish to be the enfeebled ones of the system, not those ones merely experiencing uncertainty, but those who, through their educational role, will manage and instrumentally reinforce the deterioration of a situation towards a new generation of people who will act privately, reinforcing any form of power through their passivity, silence and ignorance.

Conclusion
This article focused on the concept of political education or the concept of the political in education in an attempt to redefine the same aims and objectives of education. Although students' transformation into political subjects is vaguely mentioned in the aims and objectives, the concept of democracy is absent or defined in one-dimensional manner as procedural political act selected to serve certain purposes. In other words, democracy is not associated with individuals' everyday practice and their participation in collectivities. On the contrary, the policy seems to be assigned to certain entities that form an operational model based on their own rules and principles. This is enhanced through vagueness and limited perception about both its role and dynamics in the society.
Given the above reasoning, education naturalizes and legalizes, either formally or informally, the distance between the political subjects, agents of power, and the others, the recipients of legal or illegal violence, and the imposing power. A postmodern perception of education would primarily be based on the demystification and naturalization of power stemming from political subjects, creating broader fields of rational, democratic operation within a vision a good order. In this framework, throughout the formation and realization of decision, individuals would assume a "decisive" attitude that would help them overcome insecurity and uncertainty, namely the psycho-social situations in which the political status quo is politically disputed.
A favorable environment for the rise of extreme right political wings is being formulated by the economic crisis in Greece. Within a period of canceling personal goals, social and national pursuits, citizens seem to doubt upon the political institutions, to be marginalized while the proper ground to support the development of the extreme right political discourse is generated. Education could play a crucial role in such a formulated situation by assuming the responsibility to educate individuals on the basis of democratic principles, to prevent privatization, to reinforce the participatory action and to encourage citizens, mainly the young, to actively and politically participate in and contribute towards the promotion and reinforcement of democratic principles. It seems necessary for the citizens to co-formulate democratic requests, to redefine their relation to politics and the demand for equality so that the policy of rights becomes again an issue of the political agenda.
To recapitulate, reinforcing democracy and studying the principles and standpoints at present is a www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/wjer one-way route for the educational community that should be released from the stigma of alienation, marginalization and deconstruction of political rights (Note 34). Given that U. Beck emphasizes individual solutions chosen by people involved in systemic contradictions, education is expected to play a different role through a policy attached to a context of current economic and social components, by reformulating the teacher-student relations. Thus, there will be a transfer from chimeric to viable relations, eliminating the outworn image of democratic values. At this point, it is imperative to mention the reinforced far right trends within schools (Note 35), tied to the entire model of eliminating democratic values, legalizing violence and authoritative forms of power. The main objective is to approach schools as a place for democracy in which where its objectives could be fulfilled-instead of a reaction, within circumscribed differentiated intentions, by encouraging people to socialize within a participatory policy of discourse and reaction.