Teaching Democracy

Since 1988, Aung San Suu Kyi – Nobel Peace Prize laureate, daughter of the country’s national hero and General Secretary of the National League for Democracy – aims at establishing democracy in Myanmar/Burma. But the question of how democracy is understood has hardly been analysed due to a lack of primary sources.Analyzing five speeches delivered by Suu Kyi for Burmese attendees in 1995, the study focuses on the communication of democracy. The hypothesis consists in that, according to Suu Kyi, the process of democratization depends on a transformation of the Burmese mentality by educative means. Finally, the speeches included in the addendum are published in English for the first time and provide an insight into Suu Kyi’s perceptions beyond the scope of the study.