AFTER the party, the hangover. It is too easy to celebrate the devolution vote as a triumph for democracy. The reality may be altogether different: that ordinary people - particularly young people - see the democratic process as increasingly irrelevant to their everyday lives.

Thirty years ago, turnouts in general elections were more than 80%. At the last General Election, the turnout in Scotland was just over 70%. In some constituencies almost half of the electorate did not consider it worth voting at all. The Scottish Election Survey found that 59% of people believed that they had no influence on government actions. These are shaky foundations on which to build a new Scotland.

Scotland's young people have a tough lesson to learn: that politics is not boring. And it will be an even tougher one to teach because politics is boring.

Which is not to say that democracy is not both important and fascinating. But increasingly the paths of democracy and politics appear to have diverged. Many young people view politics with cynicism; many others with an idealism which is all too often frustrated.

Part of this is the fault of the media. Too often it fails to explain why politics is relevant to everyday life. Politics is treated like some kind of spectator sport: too much emphasis on the tactics, not enough on the goals. And nothing at all on different games altogether.

But if a country lacks a democracy in which ordinary people think they are participants, it doesn't rank as much of a democracy at all. The Scottish Referendum Survey last autumn found that people had high expectations of the new parliament.

They expect it not only to produce better policies, but also to build a more responsive democracy. There can be no better time than the present to better educate people about why democracy is - or should be - relevant to them and how they might better participate in it.

That is why we are proposing that Scotland should seize a unique opportunity to make its new parliament the most important classroom in the country.

It would be the apex of a learning programme which would use new teaching technologies to teach people of all ages about the workings of the new parliament, how it fits into wider ideas of democracy, and how they can participate in its processes.

The technology to deliver this is already falling into place. New digital television and radio services will be with us later this year, offering more choice, flexibility and interactivity. These could be linked with the Government's proposed National Grid for Learning and the Internet to make education in Scottish citizenship available nationwide and indeed world-wide.

Conventional television and radio programmes could be used in conjunction with learning packs, web pages, CD-ROMs and new forms of digital teletext to create a multimedia learning process.

But if technology can put the parliament at the hub of a learning network, educators will be essential to make it work.

There will have to be resources and training to allow teachers to become the standard bearers of the new Scottish democracy. Or, rather, its guerrillas: citizenship is subversive, and all the better for democracy that it is.

There is no reason to doubt the Government's seriousness in wanting the parliament to create a new type of participatory democracy. Given that, it is clear the target audience for this programme will have to be wider than school-aged children. It must involve people of all ages in further, higher and adult education.

Scotland's unique community education system would also have an important role in delivering the programme.

Digital technology could be used to create a core set of learning materials which would be linked to study modules appropriate to each group of learners.

One model to build on is the Gaelic Television committee. Scotland needs a similar committee for democracy education. This could distribute funding for specific elements of the overall programme among educators and broadcasters.

And what would we get in return? Citizens who are much better able to understand the processes of their new parliament and who understand its relevance to their everyday lives.

Who knows? Some may feel sufficiently inspired to want to take a more active role in politics. Which would be no bad thing: a country as small as Scotland cannot afford to have a political elite.

n Kenneth Macdonald is BBC Scotland's Education and Science Correspondent.

nLindsay Paterson is Professor of Education Policy at Moray House Institute of Education.