The participation of the citizens in the issues that allow the construction of the democracy in a country requires the existence of rights and securities, of political options and freedom. Notwithstanding, the existence of this elements is not enough. It is necessary for the citizens to have the knowledge that allows them to identify the kind of country in which they live in, which are the government institutions that govern it, how are they integrated, and what securities and obligations are established by the Constitution. In this task civic education plays an important role.

The role of the Ministry of Public Education (Secretaría de Educación Pública)

Article 3rd of the Political Constitution of the Mexican United States sets forth that the State is responsible of providing basic education to all Mexicans. This article also specifies that the education must encourage love to the Country, the conscience of international solidarity, the independence or justice that, among other values, can be considered as subject matter of the civic education.

In Mexico the contents of the basic education (preschool, elementary and middle-school) that is provided in all the country, including the Federal District, are established by the State by means of the Ministry of Public Education (sep). This institution defines civic education as follows:

“Civic education is the process through which knowledge and comprehension of the set of laws that govern the social life and formation of values and attitudes that allow the individual to integrate into the society and participate in its improvement are encouraged.”

According to the SEP, civic education that is taught mainly throughout elementary school is focused in the following aspects:

Formation of values. - Gathers the values and attitudes that must be formed in the alumni. Respect and appreciation for the human dignity, for freedom, for justice, for equality, and for solidarity stand out, as well as tolerance, honesty and telling the truth.

Knowledge and comprehension of rights and obligations. - This aspect is oriented to the knowledge of the laws that govern social life, of the individual and social obligations and rights that Mexicans have and that are secured as individual rights by the cpeum: right to live, freedom, equality before the law, physical integrity, freedom of speech, freedom of thought, freedom of beliefs, freedom of expression, freedom of reunion, freedom of work, etc. By studying these elements it is expected that the alumni identify the situations that violate these rights or obstacle its exercise and which are the resources to protect them.

Strengthening national identity. This aspect refers to the costumes and traditions, to the historical ideals and the principles of the relationship between Mexico and other countries, as the political independence, the sovereignty and the international solidarity, etc.

It is important to mention that in the last grades of elementary school, the content of the civic education emphasizes on the study of political structure of Mexico, the mechanisms of citizen participation, the individual rights and social rights, the providing and administration of justice and the organizations that promote the compliance of rights.

The roll of the IEDF in the civic education in the electoral area

The Electoral Institute of the Federal District (IEDF) is an instance that participates in the civic formation of the inhabitants of Mexico City. Actually, even though its main function is the organization of the local elections and procedures of citizen participation, the Government Statute of the Federal District in its article 127 as well as the Electoral Code for the Federal District (CEDF) Article 86 sections VI and VII, establish obligations for the institute regarding civic education, in the sense of contributing to the development of life, to get out the vote and to disseminate the democratic culture.

In this way, since the civic education is a tool for the construction of values, the work of the Institute has been focused on the dissemination and strengthening of the values associated to democracy, through proposing educational models and on the cross replica. Additionally, to broaden the impact of the work it carries out by the mandate of law, the IEDF has searched the collaboration of other institutions which allows the efforts to be directed towards different spaces of socialization of the children, teenagers, young people and adults that live in the capital of the country. Among those instances the Ministry of Public Education, the Government of the Federal District and the Boroughs of the Federal District stand out.

The area of the IEDF that is responsible, by mandate of the CEDF, of the development of the work regarding civic education is the Executive Direction of Electoral Training and Civic Education, (DECEyEC). This Direction coordinates and carries out the actions of formation, encouragement and dissemination of the democratic culture, considering the specific needs that exist in the different population groups at the capital of the country. It is important to mention that these tasks are carried out throughout the territory of the Federal District with the active participation of each one of the 40 district directions that are located in the capital of the country and the work that is carried out is structured in the following projects:

Citizen formation for specific groups.

By means of this proposal the IEDF promotes the exercise of the values of democracy, promotes knowledge of the civil and political rights and encourages the political, civic and electoral participation in three sectors of the population: women, young people between 15 and 19 years of age, and students of a superior level. The later are incorporated to the IEDF as interns developing a social service who are trained as Communal Promoters of Civic Democratic Culture and latter, they act as the ones who answer in the workshops addressed to young people and women.

This project has strengthened the proposal of inter-institutional work of the IEDF by having the participation of institutions of middle and superior education, as well as of public organizations and the civil society.

Actions and procedures of formation of values of democracy.

This project has been implemented since the year 2000 by means of the design of the educational model, addressed, initially, to children between 9 and 12 years of age and that has been enriched permanently to reach to teenagers, teachers, promoters of the civic education in different entities or organizations and parents.

The project is carried out through three great actions. The first one consists of the visits that the Civic Infantile Didactic Space (Luci) to elementary schools for one week. In this visits the educators, for a lapse of two hours carry out different didactic activities with the children of the 4th, 5th and 6th grade, in order for them to know and ponder the relevance of the values of democracy and the importance of acting in accordance to the same.

It is important to mention that since the work of the Luci in the year 2004, the IEDF and the Ministry of Public Education (SEP) entered into a Support and Collaboration Agreement.

The second line of action of the project lies in the generation, production and distribution of different educational materials such as didactic games and the publications of “Democracy and diversity” addressed to students of the 5th and 6th grade of elementary school, and “You and the democracy” for students of the 9th grade, in different schools, public as well as private.

Lastly, the third line of action is the design and permanent updating of the web site of the Luci, known as Web Luci. This line of action is intended to reach more population beyond the school spaces.

Educational actions and strategies for the democracy.

This project intends to promote the education for democracy, by means, on one hand of the permanent implementation of educational proposals generated at the District Directions from the evaluation of the specific needs and characteristics of each region and, on the other hand, joint strategies of inter-institutional collaboration.

Regarding the educational proposals generated at the District Directions, there is the Catalogue of actions of civic education and citizen formation, which up to this date is integrated by 17 educational proposals.

As regards the joint strategies of inter-institutional collaboration the IEDF has established collaboration and support agreements regarding civic education, citizen formation and dissemination of the democratic culture with: the Ministry of Education of the Government of the Federal District, the Institution of Access to the Public Information of the Federal District, the branch in Mexico of the United Nations Organization for the Education, Science and Culture, the Government of the Federal District, the Boroughs of the Federal Districts and with the local electoral organizations of Chiapas and Chihuahua.

Dissemination of the democratic culture and strengthening of the institutional image

This project contributes to the dissemination of the values of democracy and the strengthening of the image of the IEDF, as an institution that promotes the democratic culture and as an organization that encourages different projects that contribute in the area of civic formation of the citizens of the capital. As an example of these activities one of the most important is the Race for democracy, which is an event that is carried out each year, and it gathers the public in general.

Editions and publications of dissemination of the democratic culture

The editorial program of the IEDF in this subject was approved in 2001. Since then there have been publications of works addressed to children, young people, college students, teachers and researchers in which the values of democracy are disseminated as a way of life. The texts, written by specialists as well as by citizens that participate in the contests organized by the IEDF, as the one of Thesis, Essay and Store and the child and juvenile stories, contribute to the reflection and analysis of the importance of living under the provisions of democracy in the daily life, as well as other tasks carried out by the institution.

Contests, cultural actions and events for the coexistence and dissemination of the democratic culture

By means of this project the participation of the population in the contests in order to contribute to their formation in the democratic culture through the reflection and analysis of the values of democracy is promoted, and of issues related to the democratic procedures at the Federal District.

Actions for the development and strengthening of education for democratic life

This Project looks for developing actions of civic education, focus on priority population groups, and promote the values of democracy among the educational community and the general population.

To achieve this, the IEDF develops actions such as conducting civic education workshops, training of people who do their social service as community providers of democratic civic culture, an educational presentation of the Children's Civic Toy library(LUCI), and the establishment of a legal instrument for cooperation with the Head of the Boroughs.

Actions for the strengthening of the citizen participation, democratic political culture and disclosing of its values

This project looks for promoting the participation and reflexion of the inhabitants, about the democratic political culture and its values.

With the purpose to achieve this, the IEDF carries out the following actions: disclosing the publications edited by the Institute, promoting and participating in courses about the strengthening of the democratic political culture, as well as making known the messages and information generated in the disclosing campaign of democratic culture in order that citizens to know the values of the democracy.

The creation and development of proposals as the traveling theater that has visited different spaces of Mexico City stands out, and which by means of the plays as “Unidad Lupita” and “Gente de Primera” have searched to transmit messages that promote the democratic coexistence from the scope of the family and the community.

The following schedules show some actions of this projects and the manner in which they contribute and relate to two of the relevant aspects that regarding education are promoted by the SEP.