本文旨在探析公民教育於現代國家政治同一性之形塑過程所扮演 之角色。
現代民族國家的政治權力之遂行，首要工作乃是將「人」打造成 有政治邊界、文化邊界與意志邊界的「公民」，以使被統治者政治效 忠的對象由「統治者」轉變為「國家」，並且產生具有再生產性質由 下而上支撐政治共同體同一性的支持力量。在此過程中，官方義務教 育扮演了最重要的政治社會化功能。它不僅把「人」以「民族」的一 份子之名收編進「國家」，也把人的生活整合進一個同質性標準化的 文化系統當中。前者是政治意識的收編與鍛造，而後者則是工業化社 會與資本主義經濟之所需。政治與經濟，實為現代民族國家之一體兩 面：「民族」是現代國家的政治特性，「工業資本主義經濟」則是現 代國家的物質基礎。一個現代國家的公民所被期望具備的政治意識與 現代知識平台，都透過義務教育被打造或被催化。此一具有強大同化 效果的教育工程，也對弱勢族群或弱勢民族的語言與文化存續造成重 大威脅。
本文詳細分析了 19世紀法國究竟如何透過種種政策手段將統治 權力一步步滲透進境內的每一個角落，並洞察官方義務教育於其中所 扮演的角色。本文一方面回答了公民教育於民族國家形成時所扮演的 角色，另方面，這也是研究當今多元文化國家教育問題的理論基礎。

This paper aims to explore the role played by civic education in the formation of modern states’ political identity.
In their exercise of power, the primary task of modern nation-states is to transform “people，，into politically, culturally and volitionally bounded “citizens,” so that the state, instead of the “ruler,” will be regarded by the ruled as the object of loyalty, and supportive forces that uphold from below the identity of political communities will occur. In this process, official compulsory education bears the most important function of political socialization. It not only subjects “people,” now conceived as part of a “nation,” to the “state,” but integrates people’s daily life into a homogenized and standardized cultural system. While the former serves to assimilate and foster political consciousness, the latter is necessary for an industrialized society and capitalist economic system. Politics and economy are in fact two sides of the same coin, i.e. the modern nation-state: “nation” is a political feature of the modern state, and “industrial capitalist economy” is the material base of it. The political consciousness and modern knowledge expected to be acquired by modern citizens are formed or facilitated by the compulsory education. This educational project, with its profound assimilating effects, also poses a threat to the language and culture of the ethnic or national minorities.
This paper analyzes in depth the way the French state in the 19th century extended its dominant power to every corner of the territory and became aware of the role of official compulsory education in this process. This paper therefore expounds the role played by civic education in the formation of nation-states, and contributes to the theoretical foundation of the research on multicultural education in a modern state.