Deliberate Disengagement : How Education Can Decrease Political Participation in Electoral Authoritarian Regimes

A large literature examining advanced and consolidating democracies suggests that education increases political participation. However, in electoral authoritarian regimes, educated voters may instead deliberately disengage. If education increases critical capacities, political awareness, and support...

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Main Authors:	Croke, Kevin, Grossman, Guy, Larreguy, Horacio A., Marshall, John
Format:	Journal
Language:	en_US
Published:	Cambridge University Press 2016
Subjects:	political awareness democracy civic engagement education reform political participaton opposition
Online Access:	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/25398

id	okr-10986-25398
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-253982021-05-25T10:54:36Z Deliberate Disengagement : How Education Can Decrease Political Participation in Electoral Authoritarian Regimes Croke, Kevin Grossman, Guy Larreguy, Horacio A. Marshall, John political awareness democracy civic engagement education reform political participaton opposition A large literature examining advanced and consolidating democracies suggests that education increases political participation. However, in electoral authoritarian regimes, educated voters may instead deliberately disengage. If education increases critical capacities, political awareness, and support for democracy, educated citizens may believe that participation is futile or legitimizes autocrats. We test this argument in Zimbabwe—a paradigmatic electoral authoritarian regime—by exploiting cross-cohort variation in access to education following a major educational reform. We find that education decreases political participation, substantially reducing the likelihood that better-educated citizens vote, contact politicians, or attend community meetings. Consistent with deliberate disengagement, education’s negative effect on participation dissipated following 2008’s more competitive election, which (temporarily) initiated unprecedented power sharing. Supporting the mechanisms underpinning our hypothesis, educated citizens experience better economic outcomes, are more interested in politics, and are more supportive of democracy, but are also more likely to criticize the government and support opposition parties. 2016-11-18T22:10:27Z 2016-11-18T22:10:27Z 2016-08 Journal American Political Science Review 0003-0554 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/25398 en_US CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo/ World Bank Cambridge University Press Publications & Research :: Journal Article Publications & Research Africa Zimbabwe
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	en_US
topic	political awareness democracy civic engagement education reform political participaton opposition
spellingShingle	political awareness democracy civic engagement education reform political participaton opposition Croke, Kevin Grossman, Guy Larreguy, Horacio A. Marshall, John Deliberate Disengagement : How Education Can Decrease Political Participation in Electoral Authoritarian Regimes
geographic_facet	Africa Zimbabwe
description	A large literature examining advanced and consolidating democracies suggests that education increases political participation. However, in electoral authoritarian regimes, educated voters may instead deliberately disengage. If education increases critical capacities, political awareness, and support for democracy, educated citizens may believe that participation is futile or legitimizes autocrats. We test this argument in Zimbabwe—a paradigmatic electoral authoritarian regime—by exploiting cross-cohort variation in access to education following a major educational reform. We find that education decreases political participation, substantially reducing the likelihood that better-educated citizens vote, contact politicians, or attend community meetings. Consistent with deliberate disengagement, education’s negative effect on participation dissipated following 2008’s more competitive election, which (temporarily) initiated unprecedented power sharing. Supporting the mechanisms underpinning our hypothesis, educated citizens experience better economic outcomes, are more interested in politics, and are more supportive of democracy, but are also more likely to criticize the government and support opposition parties.
format	Journal
author	Croke, Kevin Grossman, Guy Larreguy, Horacio A. Marshall, John
author_facet	Croke, Kevin Grossman, Guy Larreguy, Horacio A. Marshall, John
author_sort	Croke, Kevin
title	Deliberate Disengagement : How Education Can Decrease Political Participation in Electoral Authoritarian Regimes
title_short	Deliberate Disengagement : How Education Can Decrease Political Participation in Electoral Authoritarian Regimes
title_full	Deliberate Disengagement : How Education Can Decrease Political Participation in Electoral Authoritarian Regimes
title_fullStr	Deliberate Disengagement : How Education Can Decrease Political Participation in Electoral Authoritarian Regimes
title_full_unstemmed	Deliberate Disengagement : How Education Can Decrease Political Participation in Electoral Authoritarian Regimes
title_sort	deliberate disengagement : how education can decrease political participation in electoral authoritarian regimes
publisher	Cambridge University Press
publishDate	2016
url	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/25398
_version_	1764459696232595456

Deliberate Disengagement : How Education Can Decrease Political Participation in Electoral Authoritarian Regimes

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