Non-formal Education and Its Role in Establishing a Democratic Culture within Indonesian Heterogeneous Society.

Global life, democratic society, free trade and regional cooperation are current issues which require high quality human resources that have the ability to compete within the contexts of mutual assistance. Globalisation is about interaction between nations through the flow of goods, services, money, people, ideas, information and technology. Competitiveness is now more reliant on human capital and the ability to acquire and apply technology. Many nations are also preparing themselves to be democratic although their knowledge of and experience in dealing with democracy is still developing. Education must therefore be a basic priority in national development, particularly in newly developing nations, in order to make the most of national development. This paper focuses on the implementation of civic education in the form of nonformal or extension education to help Indonesian citizens to better understand democracy.