Universities have a major responsibility for the state of the world. For over a century they educated the people who run most institutions, providing ideas and methods that guide society. Graduates contributed to dramatic improvements in life expectancy, health, leisure time, gender equality and other indicators of human development. But university-educated politicians and professionals also lead the organisations that produce global heating, loss of biodiversity, extreme inequality and numerous existential threats to humanity's future (Rees, 2003; Bostrom, 2014). Universities share responsibility for these flaws.

Humanity's most serious problems today are political, not technical. They require political ability and persistence to solve. Yet most universities dare not teach practical politics. Scholars study problems, publish about what's wrong and even propose solutions. But few teach the political skills to apply their knowledge, so most research is wasted. However, universities do teach practical business, now their biggest subject area.

This chapter aims to show why and how universities can make education for democracy and practical politics part of their core mission, to help citizens solve problems and create a better world for all, with examples to inspire and inform.

Why teach skills for democracy?

Universities have a self-interest in effective, inclusive democratic government. If they are seen as serving privileged minorities, they will lose public support. They promote their role as gateways to better jobs, inadvertently telling most school leavers they are second-class citizens. Bovens and Wille (2017) show how the ‘new educational divide provides large advantages to the children of the professional class and makes it ever harder for working-class kids to work their way up’, contributing to ‘growing resentment toward universities and higher education among blue-collar workers’. This is reflected in support for anti-establishment nationalist movements, such as America First, Brexit and France's National Rally.

The journalists, lawyers and lobbyists who advocate for or against rules governing every area of life are mostly university educated. Again and again, research evidence on better, safer ways of doing things is resisted by universityeducated professionals employed by industries that profit from the way things are.