Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-xtgtn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T07:47:02.582Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Education and Political Participation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 November 2013

Mikael Persson
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

What affects who participates in politics? In most studies of political behaviour it is found that individuals with higher education participate to a larger extent in political activities than individuals with lower education. According to conventional wisdom, education is supposed to increases civic skills and political knowledge that functions as the causal mechanisms triggering participation. However, recently a number of studies have started dealing with the question of whether education is a direct cause for political participation or merely works as a proxy for other factors, such as pre-adult socialization or social network centrality. This review article provides an introduction and critical discussion of this debate.

Type
Review Article
Information
British Journal of Political Science , Volume 45 , Issue 3 , July 2015 , pp. 689 - 703
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

Department of Political Science, University of Gothenburg (email mikael.persson@pol.gu.se). The author thanks Peter Esaiasson, Mikael Gilljam, Robert Goodin, Henrik Oscarsson, Sven Oskarsson, Staffan Kumlin, Bo Rothstein and the anonymous referees for comments on previous versions of this article.

References

Alford, John R., Funk, Carolyn L. Hibbing, John R.. 2005. Are Political Orientations Genetically Transmitted. American Political Science Review 99:153–167.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berelson, Bernard R., Lazarsfeld, Paul F. McPhee, William N.. 1954. Voting: A Study of Opinion Formation in a Presidential Election. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Berinsky, Adam J. Lenz, Gabriel S.. 2011. Education and Political Participation: Exploring the Causal Link. Political Behavior 33:357–373.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brody, Richard A. 1978. The Puzzle of Political Participation in America. Pp. 287–324 in The New American Political System, edited by Anthony King. Washington, D.C.: American Enterprise Institute.Google Scholar
Burden, Barry. 2009. The Dynamic Effects of Education on Voter Turnout. Electoral Studies 28:540–549.Google Scholar
Campbell, Angus, Converse, Philip E., Miller, Warren E. Stokes, Donald E.. 1960. The American Voter. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Campbell, Angus, Gurin, Gerald Miller, Warren E.. 1954. The Voter Decides. Evanston, Ill.: Row, Peterson.Google Scholar
Campbell, David E. 2008. Voice in the Classroom: How an Open Classroom Climate Fosters Political Engagement Among Adolescents. Political Behavior 30:437–454.Google Scholar
Campbell, David E. 2009. Civic Engagement and Education: An Empirical Test of the Sorting Model. American Journal of Political Science 53:771–786.Google Scholar
Campbell, David E. 2013. Social Networks and Political Participation. Annual Review of Political Science 16:33–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Converse, Philip E. 1972. Change in the American Electorate. Pp. 263–337 in The Human Meaning of Social Change, edited by Angus Campbell and Philip E. Converse. New York: Russell Sage.Google Scholar
Dee, Thomas S. 2004. Are There Civic Returns to Education? Journal of Public Economics 88:1697–1720.Google Scholar
Delli Carpini, Michael X. 1997. Book review: Education and Democratic citizenship in America. American Political Science Review 91:971–2.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Denver, David Hands, Gordon. 1990. Does Studying Politics Make a Difference? The Political Knowledge, Attitudes and Perceptions of School Students. British Journal of Political Science 20:263–288.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Finkel, Steven E., Horowitz, Jeremy Rojo-Mendoza, Reynaldo T.. 2012. Civic Education and Democratic Backsliding in the Wake of Kenya's Post-2007 Election Violence. Journal of Politics 74:52–65.Google Scholar
Franklin, Mark N. 2004. Voter Turnout and the Dynamics of Electoral Competition in Established Democracies since 1945. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gerber, Alan S. Green, Donald P.. 2012. Field Experiments: Design, Analysis, and Interpretation. New York: W. W. Norton.Google Scholar
Helliwell, John Putnam, Robert D.. 2007. Education and Social Capital. Eastern Economic Journal 33:1–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Henderson, John Chatfield, Sara. 2011. Who Matches? Propensity Scores and Bias in the Causal Effects of Education on Participation. Journal of Politics 73:646–658.Google Scholar
Highton, Benjamin. 2009. Revisiting the Relationship between Educational Attainment and Political Sophistication. Journal of Politics 71:1564–1576.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hillygus, D. Sunshine. 2005. The Missing Link: Exploring the Relationship between Higher Education and Political Behavior. Political Behavior 27:25–47.Google Scholar
Hirsch, Fred. 1978. Social Limits to Growth. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Hollis, Martin. 1982. Education as a Positional Good. Journal of Philosophy of Education 16:235–244.Google Scholar
Ichilov, Orit. 2003. Education and Democratic Citizenship in a Changing World. Pp. 637–670 in The Oxford Handbook of Political Psychology, edited by David O. Sears, Leonie Huddy, and Jervis Roberts. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Jackson, Robert A. 1995. Clarifying the Relationship between Education and Turnout. American Politics Research 23:279–299.Google Scholar
Jennings, Kent M. Niemi, Richard G.. 1974. The Political Character of Adolescence: The Influence of Families and Schools. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Kam, Cindy D. Palmer, Carl L.. 2008. Reconsidering the Effects of Education on Political Participation. Journal of Politics 70:612–631.Google Scholar
Kam, Cindy D. Palmer, Carl L.. 2011. Rejoinder: Reinvestigating the Causal Relationship Between Higher Education and Political Participation. Journal of Politics 73:659–663.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Langton, Kenneth P. Jennings, Kent M.. 1968. Political Socialization and the High School Civics Curriculum in the United States. American Political Science Review 62:852–867.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lazersfeld, Paul F., Berelson, Bernard Gaudet, Hazel. 1948. The People's Choice: How the Voter Makes Up His Mind in a Presidential Campaign. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Lewis-Beck, Michael S., Jacoby, William G., Norpoth, Helmut Weisberg, Herbert F.. 2008. The American Voter Revisited. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Luskin, Robert C. 1990. Explaining Political Sophistication. Political Behavior 12:331–361.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mayer, Alexander K. 2011. Does Education Increase Political Participation? Journal of Politics 73:633–645.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Milligan, Kevin, Moretti, Enrico Oreopoulos, Philip. 2004. Does Education Improve Citizenship? Evidence from the United States and the United Kingdom. Journal of Public Economics 88:1667–1695.Google Scholar
Mondak, Jeffrey J. Halperin, Karen D.. 2008. A Framework for the Study of Personality and Political Behaviour. British Journal of Political Science 38:335–362.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nie, Norman H. Hillygus, Sunshine D.. 2001. Education and Democratic Citizenship. Pp. 30–57in Making Good Citizens: Education and Civil Society, edited by Ravitch, D., and Viteritti, J. P. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Nie, Norman H., Junn, Jane Stehlik-Barry, Kenneth. 1996. Education and Democratic Citizenship in America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Niemi, Richard G. Hanmer, Michael. 2010. Voter Turnout among College Students: New Data and a Rethinking of Traditional Theories. Social Science Quarterly 91:301–323.Google Scholar
Niemi, Richard G. Junn, Jane. 1998. Civic Education: What Makes Students Learn? New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Paterson, Lindsay. 2009. Civic Values and the Subject Matter of Educational Courses. Oxford Review of Education 35:81–98.Google Scholar
Pelkonen, Panu. 2012. Length of Compulsory Education and Voter Turnout – Evidence from a Staged Reform. Public Choice 150:51–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Persson, Mikael. 2011. An Empirical Test of the Relative Education Model in Sweden. Political Behavior 33:455–478.Google Scholar
Persson, Mikael. 2012. Does Type of Education Affect Political Participation? Results From a Panel Survey of Swedish Adolescents. Scandinavian Political Studies 35:198–221.Google Scholar
Persson, Mikael. 2013. Is the Effect of Education on Voter Turnout Absolute or Relative? A Multi-level Analysis of 37 Countries. Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties 23:111–133.Google Scholar
Persson, Mikael. 2014. Testing the Relationship between Education and Political Participation Using the 1970 British Cohort Study. Political Behavior. DOI: 10.1007/S11109-013-9254-0. Published online by Springer US, September 2013.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Persson, Mikael. 2015. Social Network Position Mediates the Effect of Education on Active Political Party Membership. Party Politics 1. DOI: 10.1177/1354068812453368. Published online by Sage, 20 July 2012.Google Scholar
Persson, Mikael Oscarsson, Henrik. 2010. Did the Egalitarian Reforms of the Swedish Educational System Equalise Levels of Democratic Citizenship? Scandinavian Political Studies 33:135–163.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rubin, Donald B. 1973. Matching to Remove Bias in Observational Studies. Biometrics 29:159–183.Google Scholar
Rubin, Donald B. 1974. Estimating Causal Effects of Treatments in Randomized and Nonrandomized Studies. Journal of Educational Psychology 66:688–701.Google Scholar
Schlozman, Kay L., Verba, Sidney Brady, Henry E.. 2012. The Unheavenly Chorus: Unequal Political Voice and the Broken Promise of American Democracy. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Sears, David O. Funk, Carolyn L.. 1999. Evidence of the Long-term Persistence of Adults’ Political Predispositions. Journal of Politics 61:1–28.Google Scholar
Sondheimer, Rachel Milstein Green, Donald P.. 2010. Using Experiments to Estimate the Effects of Education on Voter Turnout. American Journal of Political Science 54:174–189.Google Scholar
Tenn, Steven. 2005. An Alternative Measure of Relative Education to Explain Voter Turnout. Journal of Politics 67:271–282.Google Scholar
Tenn, Steven. 2007. The Effect of Education on Voter Turnout. Political Analysis 15:446–464.Google Scholar
Van de Werfhorst, Herman G. 2007. Vocational Education and Active Citizenship Behavior in Cross-national Perspective, AIAS Working Paper 2007–62. Amsterdam: University of Amsterdam.Google Scholar
Verba, Sidney, Schlozman, Kay L. Brady, Henry. 1995. Voice and Equality: Civic Voluntarism in American Politics. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wolfinger, Raymond E. Rosenstone, Steven J.. 1980. Who Votes? New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press.Google Scholar