Hostname: page-component-76d6cb85b7-jhrpq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-07-16T04:28:47.550Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

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

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2016

KEVIN CROKE ,
GUY GROSSMAN ,
HORACIO A. LARREGUY  and
JOHN MARSHALL
KEVIN CROKE*
Affiliation:
World Bank
GUY GROSSMAN*
Affiliation:
University of Pennsylvania
HORACIO A. LARREGUY*
Affiliation:
Harvard University
JOHN MARSHALL*
Affiliation:
Columbia University
*
Kevin Croke is Researcher in the Development Research Group at the World Bank, Washington, DC (kcroke@worldbank.org).
Guy Grossman is Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA (ggros@sas.upenn.edu).
Horacio A. Larreguy is Assistant Professor, Department of Government, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA (hlarreguy@fas.harvard.edu).
John Marshall is Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, Columbia University, New York, NY (jm4401@columbia.edu).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

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.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 110 , Issue 3 , August 2016 , pp. 579 - 600
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

Footnotes

This article benefited from helpful conversations with, and suggestions from, Karen Grépin, Patrick O’Halloran, Marc Meredith, and participants at the Boston Working Group in African Political Economy and at seminars at John Hopkins University, London School of Economics, New York University, UC Berkeley, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, and the World Bank.

References

REFERENCES

Acemoglu, Daron, Johnson, Simon, Robinson, James A., and Yared, Pierre. 2005. “From Education to Democracy?” American Economic Review 95 (2): 44–9.Google Scholar
Agüero, Jorge M., and Bharadwaj, Prashant. 2014. “Do the More Educated Know More about Health? Evidence from Schooling and HIV Knowledge in Zimbabwe.” Economic Development and Cultural Change 62 (3): 489–517.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Agüero, Jorge M., and Ramachandran, Maithili. 2014. “The Intergenerational Effects of Increasing Parental Schooling: Evidence from Zimbabwe.” Working paper.Google Scholar
Almond, Gabriel A., and Verba, Sidney. 1963. The Civic Culture: Political Attitudes and Democracy in Five Nations. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Alwin, Duane F., and Krosnick, Jon A.. 1991. “Aging, Cohorts, and the Stability of Sociopolitical Orientations Over the Life Span.” American Journal of Sociology 97 (1): 169–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bairstow, Timothy M. 2012. Border Interdiction in Counterinsurgency: A Look at Algeria, Rhodesia, and Iraq. BiblioScholar.Google Scholar
Barro, Robert J. 1999. “Determinants of Democracy.” Journal of Political Economy 107 (S6): 158–83.Google Scholar
Berinsky, Adam J., and Lenz, Gabriel S.. 2011. “Education and Political Participation: Exploring the Causal Link.” Political Behavior 33 (3): 357–73.Google Scholar
Bleakley, Hoyt. 2010. “Malaria Eradication in the Americas: A Retrospective Analysis of Childhood Exposure.” American Economic Journal: Applied Economics 2 (2): 1–45.Google Scholar
Bourne, Richard. 2011. Catastrophe: What went Wrong in Zimbabwe? New York, NY: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Bratton, Michael. 2014. Power Politics in Zimbabwe. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner.Google Scholar
Bratton, Michael, and Masunungure, Eldred. 2008. “Zimbabwe’s Long Agony.” Journal of Democracy 19 (4): 41–55.Google Scholar
Carothers, Thomas. 2002. “The End of the Transition Paradigm.” Journal of Democracy 13 (1): 5–21.Google Scholar
Chung, Fay King. 2006. Re-Living the Second Chimurenga: Memories from Zimbabwe’s Liberation Struggle. Uppsala, Sweden: Nordic Africa Institute.Google Scholar
Conley, Timothy G., Hansen, Christian B., and Rossi, Peter E.. 2012. “Plausibly Exogenous.” Review of Economics and Statistics 94 (1): 260–72.Google Scholar
Converse, Philip E. 1972. Change in the American Electorate. In The Human Meaning of Social Change, eds. Campbell, Angus and Converse, Philip E.. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 263–337.Google Scholar
Dee, Thomas S. 2004. “Are there Civic Returns to Education?” Journal of Public Economics 88: 1697–720.Google Scholar
Deutsch, Karl W. 1961. “Social Mobilization and Political Development.” American Political Science Review 55 (03): 493–514.Google Scholar
Dewey, John. 1916. Democracy and Education. New York: The Macmillan Company.Google Scholar
Dorsey, Betty Jo. 1989. “Educational Development and Reform in Zimbabwe.” Comparative Education Review 33 (1): 40–58.Google Scholar
Frankel, Matthew. 2010. Threaten but Participate: Why Election Boycotts are a Bad Idea. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution.Google Scholar
Friedman, Willa, Kremer, Michael, Miguel, Edward, and Thornton, Rebecca. 2011. “Education as Liberation?” NBER Working Paper No. 16939.Google Scholar
Glaeser, Edward L., Ponzetto, Giacomo A. M., and Shleifer, Andrei. 2007. “Why Does Democracy Need Education?” Journal of Economic Growth 12 (2): 77–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grépin, Karen A., and Bharadwaj, Prashant. 2015. “Maternal Education and Child Mortality in Zimbabwe.” Journal of Health Economics 44: 97–117.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hermet, Guy. 1978. State–Controlled Elections: A Framework. In Elections Without Choice, eds. Hermet, Guy, Rose, Richard, and Rouquie, Alain. New York: John Wiley.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hillygus, D. Sunshine. 2005. “The Missing Link: Exploring the Relationship Between Higher Education and Political Engagement.” Political Behavior 27 (1): 25–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huntington, Samuel P. 1991. “Democracy’s Third Wave.” Journal of Democracy 2 (2): 12–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Inglehart, Ronald, and Welzel, Christian. 2005. Modernization, Cultural Change, and Democracy: The Human Development Sequence. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press..Google Scholar
Jennings, M. Kent, and Niemi, Richard G.. 1968. “The Transmission of Political Values from Parent to Child.” American Political Science Review 62 (1): 169–84.Google Scholar
Kam, Cindy D., and Palmer, Carl L.. 2008. “Reconsidering the Effects of Education on Political Participation.” The Journal of Politics 70: 612–31.Google Scholar
Karklins, Rasma. 1986. “Soviet Elections Revisited: Voter Abstention in Noncompetitive Voting.” The American Political Science Review 80 (2): 449–70.Google Scholar
King, Elisabeth. 2013. From Classrooms to Conflict in Rwanda. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kramon, Eric. 2014. “Vote Buying or Costly Signaling? Electoral Handouts and Credibility in Africa.” Working paper.Google Scholar
Kuenzi, Michelle T. 2006. “Nonformal Education, Political Participation, and Democracy: Findings from Senegal.” Political Behavior 28 (1): 1–31.Google Scholar
Kuenzi, Michelle, and Lambright, Gina M. S.. 2005. “Who Votes in Africa? An Examination of Electoral Turnout in 10 African Countries.” Afrobarometer Working Papers 51.Google Scholar
Kuran, Timur. 1991. “Now Out of Never: The Element of Surprise in the East European Revolution of 1989.” World Politics 44 (1): 7–48.Google Scholar
La Due Lake, Ronald, and Huckfeldt, Robert. 1998. “Social Capital, Social Networks, and Political Participation.” Political Psychology 19 (3): 567–84.Google Scholar
Larreguy, Horacio A., and Marshall, John. 2014. “The Effect of Education on Political Engagement in Weakly Institutionalized Democracies: Evidence from Nigeria.” Working paper.Google Scholar
LeBas, Adrienne. 2006. “Polarization as Craft: Party Formation and State Violence in Zimbabwe.” Comparative Politics 38 (4): 419–38.Google Scholar
LeBas, Adrienne. 2014. “A New Twilight in Zimbabwe? The Perils of Power Sharing.” Journal of Democracy 25 (2): 52–66.Google Scholar
Lerner, Daniel. 1958. The Passing of Traditional Society: Modernizing the Middle East. Glencoe, IL: Free Press.Google Scholar
Levitsky, Steven, and Way, Lucan A.. 2002. “The Rise of Competitive Authoritarianism.” Journal of Democracy 13: 51–66.Google Scholar
Levitsky, Steven, and Way, Lucan A.. 2010. Competitive Authoritarianism: Hybrid Regimes After the Cold War. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lijphart, Arend. 1997. “Unequal Participation: Democracy’s Unresolved Dilemma.” American Political Science Review 91 (1): 1–14.Google Scholar
MacLean, Lauren M. 2011. “State Retrenchment and the Exercise of Citizenship in Africa.” Comparative Political Studies 44 (9): 1238–66.Google Scholar
Magaloni, Beatriz. 2006. Voting for Autocracy: Hegemonic Party Survival and Its Demise in Mexico. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Magaloni, Beatriz, and Kricheli, Ruth. 2010. “Political Order and One-Party Rule.” Annual Review of Political Science 13 (1): 123–43.Google Scholar
Marongwe, Ngonidzashe. 2013. “Political Aesthetics, the Third Chimurenga, and the ZANU-PF Mobilization in Shurugwi District of Zimbabwe.” Journal of Developing Societies 29 (4): 457–85.Google Scholar
Marshall, John. 2014. “Identifying education’s political effects with incomplete data: Instrumental variable estimates combining two datasets.” Working paper.Google Scholar
Meredith, Marc. 2009. “Persistence in Political Participation.” Quarterly Journal of Political Science 4 (3): 187–209.Google Scholar
Milligan, Kevin, Moretti, Enrico, and Oreopoulos, Philip. 2004. “Does Education Improve Citizenship? Evidence from the United States and the United Kingdom.” Journal of Public Economics 88: 1667–95.Google Scholar
Murtin, Fabrice, and Wacziarg, Romain. 2014. “The democratic transition.” Journal of Economic Growth 19 (2): 141–81.Google Scholar
Narman, Anders. 2003. Education in Zimbabwe: A Matter of Success? In Twenty Years of Independence in Zimbabwe: From Liberation to Authoritarianism, eds. Darnolf, Staffan and Laakso, Liisa. London, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, Chap. 7, 140–58.Google Scholar
Nhundu, Tichatonga J. 1992. “A Decade of Educational Expansion in Zimbabwe: Causes, Consequences, and Policy Contradictions.” The Journal of Negro Education 61 (1): 78–98.Google Scholar
Nie, Norman H., Junn, Jane, and Stehlik-Barry, Kenneth. 1996. Education and Democratic Citizenship in America. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Persson, Mikael. 2011. “An Empirical Test of the Relative Education Model in Sweden.” Political Behavior 33 (3): 455–78.Google Scholar
Posner, Daniel N., and Simon, David J.. 2002. “Economic Conditions and Incumbent Support in Africa’s New Democracies Evidence from Zambia.” Comparative Political Studies 35 (3): 313–36.Google Scholar
Przeworski, Adam, Cheibub, Antonio, Limongi, Fernando, and Alvarez, Michael. 2000. “Democracy and Development: Political Institutions and Material Well-being in the World, 1950–1990.”Google Scholar
Putnam, Robert D. 1995. “Bowling Alone: America’s Declining Social Capital.” Journal of Democracy 6 (1): 65–78.Google Scholar
Riddell, Roger. 1980. From Rhodesia to Zimbabwe: Alternatives to Poverty. London, UK: Catholic Institute for International Relations.Google Scholar
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. 1997. Rousseau:’The Social Contract’and Other Later Political Writings. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Samii, Cyrus, and West, Emily. 2014. “Glass Ceiling Revolt? Theory and Evidence from Burundi.” Working paper.Google Scholar
Schedler, Andreas. 2013. The Politics of Uncertainty: Sustaining and Subverting Electoral Authoritarianism. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Sears, David O., and Valentino, Nicholas A.. 1997. “Politics Matters: Political Events as Catalysts for Preadult Socialization.” American Political Science Review 91 (1): 45–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sithole, Masipula. 2001. “Fighting Authoritarianism in Zimbabwe.” Journal of Democracy 12 (1): 160–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sondheimer, Rachel M., and Green, Donald P.. 2010. “Using Experiments to Estimate the Effects of Education on Voter Turnout.” American Journal of Political Science 41 (1): 178–89.Google Scholar
Spence, Michael. 1973. “Job Market Signaling.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 87 (3): 355–74.Google Scholar
Staiger, Douglas, and Stock, James H.. 1997. “Instrumental Variables Regression with Weak Instruments.” Econometrica 65 (3): 557–86.Google Scholar
Stokes, Susan C., Dunning, Thad, Nazareno, Marcelo, and Brusco, Valeria. 2013. Brokers, Voters, and Clientelism: The Puzzle of Distributive Politics. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Tenn, Steven. 2007. “The Effect of Education on Voter Turnout.” Political Analysis 15 (4): 446–64.Google Scholar
Verba, Sidney, Schlozman, Kay Lehman, and Brady, Henry E.. 1995. Voice and Equality: Civic Voluntarism in American Politics. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Wantchekon, Leonard, Klašnja, Marko, and Novta, Natalija. 2015. “Education and Human Capital Externalities: Evidence from Colonial Benin.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 130 (2): 703–57.Google Scholar
Woodberry, Robert D. 2012. “The Missionary Roots of Liberal Democracy.” American Political Science Review 106 (2): 244–74.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Croke supplementary material

Online Appendix

Download Croke supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 32.5 MB
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.