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Over the last decades, many liberal democracies have experienced a tension between the education system's expressed requirement to foster citizenship norms and the liberal (sub-)ideal of norm neutrality. This dilemma has been accentuated by, on the one hand, increased ethnical and cultural diversity and, on the other hand, liberalization of society in general and the schooling system in particular. This article provides a 'state of the debate' of this tension in France, Sweden, and England, through a media analysis of the period 2001-2010. Citizenship education was most prominent in the Swedish debate. The Swedish and English positions were most alike, arguing for 'objective civics' and promoting freedom of choice in the school system. In contrast, the French debate argued for a common, integrative state-managed school system that provides equal opportunities to all socioeconomic groups while inculcating loyalty to the State.

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Bangladeshi citizens enjoyed a competitive, multiparty political system with regularly contested elections. Despite serious weaknesses of other democratic institutions-including the Election Commission; a trust deficit among major political parties particularly among two major parties: the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and the Bangladesh Awami League (BAL); and repeated episodes of political violence-free and fair elections in regular Bangladesh embraced parliamentary democracy in 1991, after a short-lived one-party authoritarian system in 1975 and 15 years of military and pseudo-civilian rule. However, by 2018, it is an example of how an enfeebled legislative body can become a tool of the executive in its authoritarian agenda. the parliament to impeach Supreme Court judges. When the High Court and the Supreme Court annulled the amendment (2017), the ruling party engaged in the vilification of the Chief Justice, who later "resigned" and left the country. Bangladesh's experience since 2009, particularly two constitutional amendments, shows how a hybrid regime utilized the legislature as a tool for strengthening its authoritarian tendencies. n