Sport and democracy: Philosophical trends and educational challenges in contemporary society

This paper argues that sport may be a useful educational tool for our liberal-democratic societies. To demonstrate this claim, we first analyse the controversial issue of whether or not sports are serious activities linked to the larger society and their values. Second, we argue that sport has always had such a connection with society since ancient times. Third, we show that the origin of both politics and philosophy was linked to several forces and attitudes pertaining to sport. Fourth, we show that such forces and attitudes are still at the core of contemporary sport. As a result, we defend that we can still use sports to enhance the quality of our liberal-democratic societies.