Education and political engagement

One of the most “universal” patterns that emerges from the European Social Survey (ESS) data is that education is very strongly related to political engagement. Take interest in politics:

The higher you move up the educational ladder, the darker the colours, meaning that the percentage of people who state they are “very” or “quite” interested in politics is higher. This is true in every single ESS survey in every single country since 2002.

But this is not just about what people feel or think; it’s about what they actually do. For example, what percentage of people in each country report that they have signed a petition in the previous year?

Again, people with a college education are more likely to have signed a petition than those with less than upper-secondary education, in every single country. The median gap is about 18 percentage points. 

We find the same pattern just about everywhere in Europe: in some countries, people participate much more than in others; but in all of them, people with more formal education participate more. This is true for all other forms of political participation that can be analysed in this Atlas, including participation in demonstrations, contacts with politicians and public officials, membership of political parties, boycotts of products for political reasons, and even wearing campaign badges or stickers. In sum, education is closely tied to citizens’ capacity and propensity to engage with politics.

Why?

Several explanations have been advanced. Education seems to provide resources — such as political knowledge, civic skills and confidence — that facilitate political participation. However, schooling may also shape political norms, identities and habits during important formative years, which later result in greater political engagement.

What is clear is that although European countries differ greatly in how much their citizens participate overall, the same educational hierarchy appears again and again. Inequalities in political participation are not peculiar to particular political systems: even where participation is relatively widespread, it tends to be socially stratified by education. The implication for democracy and political (in)equality is also important: the voices and topics that reach institutions and enter the political debate are systematically more likely to come from the better educated.