International Journal of Public Opinion Research HI. g No. 4 0954-2892/97 S300 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY IN ARGENTINA: EFFECTS OF A

Democracy and tolerance for alternative viewpoints are truisms in the United States, only marginally affected by educational curricula. But in new democracies such as Argentina, schools can play a major role in building such norms. This field experiment (iV = 3,387) examines the effects on political socialization of a program involving the use of local newspapers in 5th- and 6th-grade classrooms during Argentina's national election year of 1995. Participating teachers administered questionnaires to their students near the end of the school year (October), as did a control group of teachers in the same grades at the same schools who were not teaching with the newspaper. Effects of the newspaper intervention on students included higher news media use, discussion of politics with friends and family, interest in politics, expression of opinions, support for democracy, and tolerance for diversity. Socioeconomic status (SES) was a strong predictor of these measures, particularly of tolerance. The newspaper intervention interacted with SES, closing gaps between social strata in most indicators of political socialization. The process of redemocratization in Latin America since the early 1980s has sparked considerable interest in ways to consolidate democratic institutions in the region. Particular attention is being paid to citizenship education, as scholars recognize that new institutional arrangements do not necessarily alter the political culture. A democratic system can coexist with a political tradition that harbors deep-rooted authoritarian elements (Diamond, 1993)". Many of the 'new democracies ' of Latin America govern peoples in whom there is no widespread norm of political tolerance or democratic participation. The problem of building a broadly democratic citizenry is especially acute in countries where the transition to democracy has generated high expectations— especially for economic growth and redistribution—that many democratically elected governments are often unable to meet. Ordinary results in a context o