La scienza della formazione politica

Abstract

Can political education be considered as a scientific discipline? If yes, what is its study and research area? To what knowledge and practical purposes is it aimed? Political education is that area of the educational discipline which takes care of the study, formulation and identification of educational strategies aimed to the development of political personalities. Its study objects, its original and innovative contributions are various. They range from the understanding of the genesis and the psycho-dynamic evolution of the political personality to the understanding of social and individual factors supporting its construction; from the acknowledgement of the anthropological differences of role and status among the political subjects to the establishment of «profiles of competencies» necessary to perform the different political roles; from the ability of detecting the real educational needs of political structures to the ability of analysing the efficiency and the political potentialities of both individuals and groups, and, finally, from the ability of planning to the ability of acting in order to introduce the required educational changes by using the most adequate theoretic and methodological tools. In fact, the practical purposes of political education are represented by the political development of the individual that are essential to the development of the political model of society supported; for this reason, to know educational politics means to have a powerful tool which is necessary to all those who really intend to introduce a social change.