Abstract
Across democracies, education predicts electoral participation and political interest. Here, German students on the pre-vocational and pre-academic educational tracks are compared to show how these differences emerge, and thus indicate how they can be addressed. In a Preliminary Study, a large dataset (3747 participants) revealed that there is a gap in political interest between the tracks, and that this predicts a gap in voting intentions. Study 1 (228 participants) tested three mediators of the relationship between educational tracks and voting intentions. Differences in civic understanding primarily explained the link between educational track and voting intentions. Lastly, in Study 2, 23 semi-structured interviews explored how limited civic understanding constrains political engagement among students on the pre-vocational track, indicating that a narrow understanding of power and a lack of sociological imagination are key. The finding that the gaps emerge due to differences in civic understanding, which is teachable, suggests that schools can play an effective role in addressing them. Limitations and implications are discussed.
Highlights
IntroductionEducation predicts electoral participation and political interest
Across democracies, education predicts electoral participation and political interest
This paper explores the dynamics that connect educational differences to a civic engagement gap with regard to electoral participation and political interest in Germany
Summary
Education predicts electoral participation and political interest. Electoral participation closely tracks education; in the 2000 US presidential election, for instance, young college graduates were nearly four times as likely as high school dropouts to vote (Galston, 2007). The decline in electoral participation may have been accompanied by a shift towards other, mostly informal and expressive, forms of participation that have given young people a new voice in civic processes (Albert et al, 2015; Sloam, 2014) These forms of participation ‘are heavily structured in favour of highly educated and well-off citizens’ (Sloam, 2014: 663) as they depend more on skills, resources and self-efficacy. The focus of the studies presented here will be on electoral participation and on political interest as a general foundation
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