Individual policy preferences for vocational versus academic education: Microlevel evidence for the case of Switzerland

Abstract

MPIfG Discussion Papers are refereed scholarly papers of the kind that are publishable in a peer-reviewed disciplinary journal. Their objective is to contribute to the cumulative improvement of theoretical knowledge. The papers can be ordered from the institute for a small fee (hard copies) or downloaded free of charge (PDF). AbstractThis paper uses an original dataset from a survey conducted in Switzerland in 2007 to explore the dynamics of education policy preferences. This issue has largely been neglected so far as most studies on welfare state attitudes do not look at preferences for education. We argue that education policy preferences vary along two dimensions: the distribution of resources across different sectors of the education system (i.e. voca tional training vs. academic education) and the level of investment in education both from public and private sources. With regard to the former, the findings suggest that individual educational experience matters most, i.e., individuals prefer to concentrate resources on those educational sectors that are closest to their own educational back ground. With regard to the second dimension, we find that affiliation to partisan ide ologies matters much more than other variables. Proponents of the left demand more investment both from the state as well as from the private sector and oppose individual tuition fees. ZusammenfassungDieses Papier untersucht die Dynamik bildungspolitischer Präferenzen auf der Mikro ebene. Dabei werden Daten aus einer eigenen Erhebung verwendet, die im Jahr 2007 in der Schweiz durchgeführt wurde. Die Untersuchung bildungspolitischer Präferenzen wurde in der einschlägigen Literatur zur Untersuchung von wohlfahrtsstaatlichen Ein stellungen bisher vernachlässigt. Wir zeigen, dass bildungspolitische Präferenzen auf zwei Dimensionen zu verorten sind: zum einen die Verteilung von öffentlichen Mitteln auf verschiedene Bildungssektoren (berufliche vs. hochschulische Bildung) und zum anderen das Gesamtniveau der Bildungsausgaben. In Bezug auf die erste Dimension stellen wir fest, dass der individuelle Bildungshintergrund sehr prägend ist. Die Befrag ten unterstützten die Konzentration von öffentlichen Mitteln in denjenigen Bildungs bereichen, die sie aus der eigenen Bildungskarriere kennen. In Bezug auf die zweite Dimension lassen sich hingegen starke ideologische Effekte feststellen. Individuen, die sich ideologisch im linken Spektrum verorten, fordern mehr Bildungsausgaben vonsei ten des Staates und des Privatsektors und lehnen Studiengebühren eher ab.

Who Owns Education? Cleavage Structures in the Partisan Competition over Educational Expansion

“…Initial evidence from the micro level reinforces the notion that support for educational expansion is associated with partisan ideologies. Relying on survey data from Switzerland, Busemeyer, Cattaneo and Wolter (2011) show that individuals who identify with the political left are significantly more likely to support public spending on education and oppose tuition fees for higher education. Ansell (2010: 134) and Busemeyer (2010), using the ISSP data, also find that partisan supporters of the left are more likely to be in favour of increases in public education spending, independent of their individual socio-economic backgrounds.…”

Academic, vocational or general? An analysis of public opinion towards education policies with evidence from a new comparative survey

“…As Busemeyer et al (2011) showed for the case of Switzerland, individuals tend to support additional spending on those sectors of the education system with which they have individual experiences. This can be conceived of as a 'socializing effect'.…”

“…Yet, when it comes to preferences for different kinds of education policy -the focus of this article -international survey data contain no information. Hence, Busemeyer et al (2011) used data from a survey conducted in Switzerland to study this issue.…”

“…First, our analysis makes an important empirical contribution. The small but growing literature on public opinion about education policy (Ansell, 2010;Busemeyer, 2012Busemeyer, , 2015Busemeyer et al, 2011;Busemeyer and Jensen, 2012;Garritzmann, 2015Garritzmann, , 2016 relies on readily available comparative surveys of public opinion, such as the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP), the European Social Survey (ESS) and the Eurobarometer. These surveys, however, only include very few and general questions about education policy.…”

Partisan politics of skills in middle-income countries: Insiders, outsiders and the vocational education system of Turkey

“…For example, while large firms are more likely to support state investment in general education rather than VET, smaller firms are expected to promote more public investment in VET due to their disadvantages in organising firm-level training (Culpepper, 2003). Similarly, labour market outsiders, who are mostly in insecure employment, are not covered in social protection systems or represented by labour unions, will prefer public investment in initial-VET more than the insiders as it improves the opportunities of these individuals to get better and more secure jobs (Boix, 1998;Estevez-Abe et al, 2001;Iversen and Stephens, 2008;Busemeyer et al, 2011;Busemeyer, 2015c). In the end, VET systems supported by outsiders will have different partisan politics and characteristics from the VET systems shaped by the insiders.…”