This article explores how John Dewey’s concept of democracy can contribute to our understandingof what is required from education amid growing nationalism and populism, even in what are usuallyperceived as established democracies. The purpose of the study is to explore how standardsbasedcurricula for citizenship education can be problematised in relation to the broad concept ofdemocracy. The meaning of citizenship education in curricula is examined through two cases fromwestern countries (Sweden and the USA) with standards-based curricula. These social studiescurricula deal with democracy as something ‘to teach about’, rather than focusing on helpingstudents learn to understand and recreate democracy for their own generation. However, theconcept of democracy, as a moral and ethical ideal, becomes difficult to express in a curriculumlogic of standards and knowledge outcomes emphasising measurability. Now, when democracy ischallenged, also seems to be the right time to confront the logic of a standards-based curriculumand the selective traditions of subjects within the social studies, as well as to ask the questions‘why?’ and ‘what for?’ in relation to basic social values and students’ competences.