Interpretations from a body of research on the influence of social studies curriculum on socio-moral development are presented. Research areas in the socio-moral domain commonly focus on a moral dilemma discussion approach, classroom climate and controversial issues in the social studies, community service/social action, and cooperative learning. Four potential interpretations of research focusing on the development of reasoning about political questions and research with a focus on democratic political orientations include: (1) the trivial findings interpretation, which suggests that the influence of social studies programs in the socio-moral domain are trivial and completely without educational or social significance; (2) the resistant variables interpretation, which holds that because the areas of attitudes and values are among the most resistant to change, any positive influence is detected as significant; (3) the small but socially significant interpretation, which is built around the observation that sometimes small changes found as a result of an interpretation may have important social significance; and (4) the developmental interpretation, which assumes that political reasoning and attitudes are developmental in nature; thus small gains might be interpreted as steps toward more mature and democratic forms of belief and reasoning. A summary of the arguments of a variety of authors suggests the idea that should citizenship education be effective in its goal of producing an entire population of rational/activist citizens, unintended consequences may result that actually conflict with basic democratic values. (LH)