Friday, March 14, 2014
Council (Omni Shoreham)
Research on political participation has consistently observed a robust and positive correlation between levels of formal education and political participation. The well-educated participate much more than the lesser educated citizens. However, there is far less systematic analysis of the implications of these educational differences in political participation for the modern democracies. First, we investigate with the use of social survey data, the education gap in participation in a selection of West European countries: the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France, UK and Denmark. Drawing on vast array of data, we explore to what extent differences between lower and higher educated citizens are translated in participation inequalities. The educational gap is manifest in all forms of political activity. But for some forms, especially the new ones, the gap is larger than for others. Higher educated are not only overrepresented in numbers; they also are more active, on average, than the lower educated groups. The existence of these educational inequalities in participation indicate a general pattern across the different democracies. Second, the paper explores the political consequences of this education gap by exploring the question to what extent higher-educated groups differ in policy preferences from the less educated groups. The education gap has been most manifest with regard to socio-cultural issues, such as crime, the admittance of asylum seekers, cultural integration of immigrants and EU unification. The recent emergence of eurosceptic and nationalist parties, with a populist style, have made in some European countries the less educated more visible in the political landscape.
