Educating Democrats or Autocrats? The Regime-Conditional Effect of Education on Support for Democracy

Abstract

Political science has long viewed education as an instrumental factor in developing support for democracy and beneficial for democratization. However, governments, both democratic and authoritarian, have substantial control over the curriculum and develop education institutions with the specific aim to instill in students the norms and values that underpin the regime. With this in mind, this study asks, does the effect of education vary by the political regime in which education was undertaken? We use a quasi-experimental approach exploiting European compulsory schooling reforms, implemented under both democratic and authoritarian regimes, to answer this question. We find that education has no effect on principle and functional support for democracy, but that education’s effect on satisfaction with democracy is conditional on regime type. For those educated under a democratic regime, education led to greater satisfaction with democracy, whereas those educated under an authoritarian regime became less satisfied with democracy.

Citizens’ preferences for liberal democracy and its deformations: evidence from Germany

“…They are central indicators of cognitive mobilization (Dalton, 1984: 267) and can be presumed to foster a greater awareness and appreciation of the complexity of politics and, thus, a stronger commitment to democratic values like pluralism (Dalton, 2008) and self-expression values that are tied to the realization of liberal democracy (Inglehart and Welzel, 2005). Furthermore, formal education socializes citizens with values that sustain the political regime (Österman and Robinson, 2022) and high formal education is also an indicator of privileged social status, which tends to go along with a preference for the existing social order (Ceka and Magalhães, 2020). For all these reasons, higher education as well as political interest are likely correlates of support for liberal democracywhich is also corroborated by empirical evidence on support for representative and liberal democracy (e.g.…”

Narratives of democracy: Educated elites’ responses to democratic erosion in Indonesia

“…While some scholars argue that the positive effects of education on democratic values cut across regime types (Chong and Gradstein, 2015), others suggest that education's influence on democratic attitudes is much stronger in democracies than in autocracies (Diwan and Vartanova, 2020). Österman and Robinson's (2022) analysis of citizens in western and east central European countries shows that citizens who were educated during authoritarian rule tend to be more dissatisfied with democracy than those who were educated in democratic regimes. While some demonstrate that educated citizens in Russia (Gibson et al, 1992) and Vietnam (Dang, 2019) are more supportive of democracy, others suggest that autocrats invest in higher education to cultivate "acquiescent intellectuals" to support their rule (Perry, 2020).…”

Education level and affective polarization: The mediation effects of psychological engagement in politics and authoritarian attitudes

“…In particular, although education is usually believed to contribute to the advancement of democratic practices, institutions, and values such as social trust (Huang, van den Brink, and Groot 2011) and support for democracy (Österman and Robinson 2022), extremist movements' recent successful mobilization of college students questions such a constructive link between education and stable and harmonious democracy. As for the connection between education and affective polarization, the increases in both American citizens' educational level and their affective polarization level over the last couple of decades make us cast doubt on the education effect of lowering the level of affective polarization.…”