It is with a concern for a more vivid expression of emancipatory versions of democracy, citizenship and public life that the author sets out to link dominant ideology, educational programmes and civic education to better understand what critical conceptions of citizenship education might look like from the perspective of policy, curriculum and students' lived experiences. To this end, the author investigates particular conceptions of democracy to help situate the ideological dimensions of educational policy and curriculum. After offering an in-depth critique of post-apartheid citizenship education policy, the author attempts to align critical conceptions of democratic citizenship education to South African education to imagine how political literacy, civic duty and tolerance may be signified in a state of advanced capitalism.