Session Information
07 SES 06 B, Poster Session
Poster Session
Contribution
Political participation is a key element of democracy (Almond and Verba 1963; Dahl 1971; Dalton 1996; Parry and Moyser 1994; Verba et al. 1995), while education is widely perceived as an essential component of a stable democratic society because of its ability to encourage citizens to participate in democratic processes (Dee 2004). Indeed, one of the most consistently documented findings in the field of political science is the positive association between political participation and educational attainment (Barnes 2006; Mayer 2011; Stockemer 2014). In recent years we have witnessed an increase in educational levels of citizens living in industrialized societies (EUROSTAT 2004: 78; Human Development Report 2014: 192; OECD 2014: 30). Despite the increases in mean educational levels in Western democracies, studies in recent decades have indicated a decline in several forms of political participation (Listhaug and Wiberg 1995; Schmitt and Holmberg 1995; Wattenberg 1998; Holmberg 1999; Gray and Caul 2000; Scarrow 2007). While this presents a paradox in itself, for which several plausible and empirically tested explanations have been offered (Nie et al. 1996; Persson 2011), a consistent finding remains: inequalities in political participation, based on socioeconomic resources, including educational attainment, remain prevalent and are frequently also extensive (Parry et al. 1992; Verba et al. 2003). From a normative standpoint, inequalities (i.e. disparities) in political participation are troubling since they may have important consequences for (un)equal political influences (Lijphart 1997; Hakhverdian et al. 2011: 230; Schlozman et al. 2012: 3).
In our research we examine educational inequalities in political participation in 1999–2008 period in a group of 14 established EU democracies and 10 post-communist EU member states. The main focus is on comparison of participation rates among tertiary and non-tertiary educational group in a period of increasing expansion of tertiary education in Europe. We analyse representative national samples from the third (1999/2000) and fourth (2008/2009) wave of European Values Study. We employ two measures of conventional political participation: political party membership and interest in politics. The results indicate the existence of educational gap in political participation, with tertiary educational group reporting higher levels of membership and political interest than the non-tertiary group, in 1999 and 2008, and in EU14 and ECE10 group. Furthermore, we find a decrease in participation in the ECE group on both participation measures. Lastly, we find that the expansion of tertiary education in ECE group coincides with a decrease in inequalities in participation. The results for EU group are mixed. Implications of the results are discussed.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
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