The point of departure in this article is the Danish debate about democracy in schools. This article presents a first step in a study of how the relationship between democracy and education can be understood. A juxtaposition of the two concepts requires, first of all, an analysis of how the concept of democracy is used in the educational debate. In this article three models of democracy are applied as an analytical framework: a liberal model (Hobbes, Locke, Kant, Rawls, Dworkin), a communitarian model (Maclntyre, Sandel, Nussbaum) and a communicative/deliberative model (Walzer, Benhabib, Taylor, Habermas). Numerous contradictions and tensions between concepts of democracy and education can be found in such a juxtaposition, depending on which conception of democracy one chooses to apply. In this article I discuss which conception affords us the most meaningful concept of democratic teaching. As an introduction, a brief historical overview of the interplay between democracy and education in Danish school is provided. © 2001 Kluwer Academic Publishers.
