Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-tj2md Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T22:32:03.884Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Re-examining Socialization Theory: How Does Democracy Influence the Impact of Education on Anti-Foreigner Sentiment?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 May 2016

Jens Peter Frølund Thomsen  and
Mark Olsen
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Socialization theory claims that the ability of education to reduce anti-foreigner sentiment varies cross-nationally because state authorities are not equally committed to accepting ethnic minorities: higher educated persons harbor less anti-foreigner sentiment because they spend longer in educational institutions that impose official democratic values, which forbid negative reactions toward ethnic minorities. Consequently, higher educated persons ought to diverge from the lower educated as democratic institutions progress. Analyses support these claims: the impact of education on reducing anti-foreigner sentiment is strongest in the oldest democracies, moderate among the medium-aged (e.g., South European) democracies and weakest among the youngest (East European) democracies; and higher educated persons are disproportionately influenced by the maturation of democratic institutions. Analyses utilize data from the 28-country 2008 European Social Survey.

Type
Articles
Information
British Journal of Political Science , Volume 47 , Issue 4 , October 2017 , pp. 915 - 938
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 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.)

Footnotes

*

Department of Political Science, Aarhus University, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark (email: froelund@ps.au.dk); Agency for Modernization, Ministry of Finance, Landgreven 4, P.O. box 2193, 1017 Copenhagen K (e-mail: marol@modst.dk). The authors wish to thank the three reviewers and Robert Johns, the Editor for many helpful suggestions. Previous versions of this article were presented at the Annual Scientific Meeting of the International Society of Political Psychology, Herzliya, 2013, and at the Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago, 2014. Likewise, we wish to thank close colleagues – most notably Simon Calmar Andersen, Christoph Arndt, Anders Engrob Birkmose, Emily Cochran Bech, Martin Bækgaard, Jouni Kuha, Thomas J. Leeper, Kim Mannemar Sønderskov, and Søren Risbjerg Thomsen – for their comments on earlier drafts. Data replication sets are available at https://dataverse.harvard.edu/dataverse/BJPolS. Online appendices are available at http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.1017/S0007123415000496.

References

Almond, Gabriel A., and Verba, Sidney. 1965. The Civic Culture. Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown.Google Scholar
Berry, William D., Golder, Matt, and Milton, Daniel. 2012. Improving Tests of Theories Positing Interaction. Journal of Politics 74 (3):653–671.Google Scholar
Blalock, Hubert. M. 1967. Towards a Theory of Minority-Group Relations. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Blumer, Herbert. 1958. Race Prejudice as a Sense of Group Position. Pacific Sociological Review 1:3–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bobo, Lawrence. 1983. Whites’ Opposition to Busing: Symbolic Racism or Realistic Group Conflict? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 45 (6):1196–1210.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bobo, Lawrence, and Hutchings, Vincent L.. 1996. Perceptions of Racial Group Competition: Extending Blumer’s Theory of Group Position to a Multiracial Social Context. American Sociological Review 61 (6):951–972.Google Scholar
Braun, Michael, and Müller, Walter. 1997. Measurement of Education in Comparative Research. Comparative Social Research 16:163–201.Google Scholar
Campbell, Angus, Converse, Philip E., Miller, Warren E., and Stokes, Donald. 1960. The American Voter. New York: John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
Case, Charles E., Greeley, Andrew M., and Fuchs, Stephan. 1989. Social Determinants of Racial Prejudice. Sociological Perspectives 32 (4):469–483.Google Scholar
Ceobanu, Alin M. 2011. Usual Suspects? Public Views about Immigrants’ Impact on Crime in European Countries. International Journal of Comparative Sociology 52 (1–2):114–131.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ceobanu, Alin M., and Escandell, Xavier. 2010. Comparative Analyses of Public Attitudes toward Immigrants and Immigration Using Multinational Survey Data: A Review of Theories and Research. Annual Review of Sociology 36:309–328.Google Scholar
Christensen, Tom, Lægreid, Per, Roness, Paul G., and Røvik, Kjell Arne. 2007. Organization Theory and the Public Sector. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Coenders, Marcel, and Scheepers, Peer. 1998. Support for Ethnic Discrimination in the Netherlands 1979–1993: Effects of Period, Cohort, and Individual Characteristics. European Sociological Review 14 (4):405–422.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coenders, Marcel, and Scheepers, Peer. 2003. The Effect of Education on Nationalism and Ethnic Exclusionism: An International Comparison. Political Psychology 24 (2):313–343.Google Scholar
Dahl, Robert A. 1971. Polyarchy. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Dahl, Robert A. 1989. Democracy and its Critics. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Dennis, Jack. 1968. Major Problems of Political Socialization Research. Midwest Journal of Political Science 12 (1):85–114.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dinas, Elias. 2014. Why Does the Apple Fall Far from the Tree? How Early Political Socialization Prompts Parent–Child Dissimilarity. British Journal of Political Science 44 (4):827–852.Google Scholar
Duch, Raymond M., and Gibson, James L.. 1992. ‘Putting Up With’ Fascists in Western Europe: A Comparative, Cross-Level Analysis of Political Tolerance. Western Political Quarterly 45 (1):237–273.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Easton, David. 1975. A Re-Assessment of the Concept of Political Support. British Journal of Political Science 5 (4):435–457.Google Scholar
Emler, Nicholas, and Frazer, Elizabeth. 1999. Politics: The Education Effect. Oxford Review of Education 25 (1–2):251–273.Google Scholar
European Social Survey. 2008. ESS Data File, Version 4.0, downloaded from website in February 2013. Available from http://www.europeansocialsurvey.org/data/.Google Scholar
Green, Donald P., and Shapiro, Ian. 1994. Pathologies of Rational Choice Theory. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Hainmueller, Jens, and Hiscox, Michael J.. 2007. Educated Preferences: Explaining Attitudes toward Immigration in Europe. International Organization 61 (2):399–442.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hello, Evelyn, Scheepers, Peer, and Gijsberts, Merove. 2002. Education and Ethnic Prejudice in Europe: Explanations for Cross-National Variances in the Educational Effect on Ethnic Prejudice. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research 46 (1):5–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hello, Evelyn, Scheepers, Peer, and Sleegers, Peter. 2006. Why the More Educated are Less Inclined to Keep Ethnic Distance: An Empirical Test of Four Explanations. Ethnic and Racial Studies 29 (5):959–985.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hernes, Gudmund, and Knudsen, Knud. 1992. Norwegians’ Attitudes toward New Immigrants. Acta Sociologica 35 (2):123–139.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hjerm, Mikael, and Nagayoshi, Kikuko. 2011. The Composition of the Minority Population as a Threat: Can Real Economic and Cultural Threats Explain Xenophobia? International Sociology 26 (6):815–843.Google Scholar
Huntington, Samuel P. 1991. Democracy’s Third Wave. Journal of Democracy 2:12–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hyman, Herbert H., and Wright, Charles R.. 1979. Education’s Lasting Influence on Values. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Inglehart, Ronald. 1997. Modernization and Postmodernization. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jackman, Mary R., and Muha, Michael J.. 1984. Education and Intergroup Attitudes: Moral Enlightenment, Superficial Democratic Commitment, or Ideological Refinement? American Sociological Review 49 (6):751–769.Google Scholar
Jackson, Robert A. 1995. Clarifying the Relationship between Education and Turnout. American Politics Quarterly 23 (3):279–299.Google Scholar
Kelly, Marisa. 1994. Theories of Justice and Street-Level Discretion. Journal of Public Administration and Research and Theory 4 (2):119–140.Google Scholar
Kinder, Donald R., and Sanders, Lynn M.. 1996. Divided by Color. Racial Politics and Democratic Ideals. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Lipset, Seymour M. 1994 [1959]. Political Man. Baltimore, Md.: The Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
March, James G., and Olsen, Johan P.. 1989. Rediscovering Institutions. The Organizational Basis of Politics. New York: The Free Press.Google Scholar
Marsh, David. 1971. Political Socialization: The Implicit Assumptions Questioned. British Journal of Political Science 1 (4):453–465.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McLaren, Lauren M. 2003. Anti-Immigrant Prejudice in Europe: Contact, Threat Perception, and Preferences for the Expulsion of Migrants. Social Forces 81 (3):909–936.Google Scholar
Morrell, Michael E. 2003. Survey and Experimental Evidence for a Reliable and Valid Measure of Internal Political Efficacy. Public Opinion Quarterly 67 (4):589–602.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Niemi, Richard G., and Sobieszek, Barbara I.. 1977. Political Socialization. Annual Review of Sociology 3:209–233.Google Scholar
Pacheco, Julianna. S. 2008. Political Socialization in Context: The Effect of Political Competition on Youth Voter Turnout. Political Behavior 30 (4):415–436.Google Scholar
Parsons, Talcott. 1979 [1951] The Social System. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Persson, Mikael, and Oscarsson, Henrik. 2009. Did the Egalitarian Reforms of the Swedish Educational System Equalise Levels of Democratic Citizenship? Scandinavian Political Studies 33 (2):135–163.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pichler, Florian. 2010. Foundations of Anti-Immigrant Sentiment: The Variable Nature of Perceived Group Threat across Changing European Societies 2002–2006. International Journal of Comparative Sociology 51 (6):445–469.Google Scholar
Quillian, Lincoln. 1995. Prejudice as a Response to Perceived Group Threat: Population Composition and Anti-Immigrant and Racial Prejudice in Europe. American Sociological Review 60 (4):586–611.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rose, Richard, and Shin, Doh Chull. 2001. Democratization Backwards: The Problem of Third-Wave Democracies. British Journal of Political Science 31 (2):331–354.Google Scholar
Samanni, Marcus, Teorell, Jan, Kumlin, Staffan, and Rothstein, Bo. 2010. The QoG Social Policy Dataset, Version 11 Nov 10, University of Gothenburg, The Quality of Government Institute. Available from http://www.systemicpeace.org/polity/polity4.htm (Marshall and Jaggers 2002).Google Scholar
Sanborn, Howard, and Thyne, Clayton L.. 2014. Learning Democracy: Education and the Fall of Authoritarian Regimes. British Journal of Political Science 44 (4):773–797.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sartori, Giovanni. 1987. The Theory of Democracy Revisited. London: Chatham House.Google Scholar
Schattschneider, Elmer Eric. 1960. The Semi-Sovereign People. A Realist’s View of Democracy in America. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.Google Scholar
Schuman, Howard, Steeh, Charlotte, Bobo, Laurence, and Krysan, Maria. 1997. Racial Attitudes in America. Trends and Interpretations. Rev. edn. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Scott, Patrick G. 1997. Assessing Determinants of Bureaucratic Discretion: An Experiment in Street-Level Decision Making. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 7 (1):35–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sears, David O., and Funk, Carolyn L.. 1990. The Limited Effect of Economic Self-Interest on the Political Attitudes of the Mass Public. Journal of Behavioral Economics 19 (3):247–271.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sears, David O., Hensler, Carl P., and Speer, Leslie. 1979. Whites’ Opposition to ‘Busing’: Self-Interest or Symbolic Politics? American Political Science Review 73 (2):369–384.Google Scholar
Selznick, Gertrude J., and Steinberg, Stephan. 1969. The Tenacity of Prejudice. New York: Harper Torchbooks.Google Scholar
Semyonov, Moshe, Raijman, Rebecca, and Gorodzeisky, Anastasia. 2006. The Rise of Anti-Foreigner Sentiment in European Societies, 1988–2000. American Sociological Review 71 (3):426–449.Google Scholar
Sides, John, and Citrin, Jack. 2007. European Opinion about Immigration: The Role of Identities, Interests and Information. British Journal of Political Science 37 (3):477–504.Google Scholar
Sniderman, Paul M., Hagendoorn, Louk, and Prior, Markus. 2004. Predisposing Factors and Situational Triggers: Exclusionary Reactions to Immigrant Minorities. American Political Science Review 98 (1):35–49.Google Scholar
Sniderman, Paul M., and Piazza, Thomas. 1993. The Scar of Race. Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Statistisches Bundesamt. 2009. Available from https://www.destatis.de/DE/ZahlenFakten/GesellschaftStaat/Bevoelkerung/MigrationIntegration/AuslaendischeBevolkerung/Tabellen/BundeslaenderJahre.html (accessed February 2013).Google Scholar
Steenbergen, Marco R., and Jones, Bradford. 2002. Modeling Multilevel Data Structures. American Journal of Political Science 46 (1):218–237.Google Scholar
Stegmueller, Daniel. 2013. How Many Countries for Multilevel Modeling? A Comparison of Frequentist and Bayesian Approaches. American Journal of Political Science 57 (3):748–761.Google Scholar
Stouffer, Samuel A. 1955. Communism, Conformity, and Civil Liberties. Piscataway, N.J.: Transaction.Google Scholar
Stubager, Rune. 2008. Education Effects on Authoritarian–Libertarian Values: A Question of Socialization. British Journal of Sociology 59 (2):327–350.Google Scholar
UN International Migration. 2009. Available from: http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/2009Migration_Chart/2009IttMig_chart.htm (accessed February 2013).Google Scholar
Virtanen, Simo V., and Huddy, Leonie. 1998. Old-Fashioned Racism and New Forms of Racial Prejudice. Journal of Politics 60 (2):311–332.Google Scholar
Wagner, Ulrich, and Zick, Andreas. 1995. The Relation of Formal Education to Ethnic Prejudice: Its Reliability, Validity and Explanation. European Journal of Social Psychology 25 (1):41–56.Google Scholar
Warwick, Paul V. 1998. Disputed Cause, Disputed Effect: The Postmaterialist Thesis Re-Examined. Public Opinion Quarterly 62 (4):583–609.Google Scholar
Weil, Frederick D. 1985. The Variable Effects of Education on Liberal Attitudes: A Comparative-Historical Analysis of Anti-Semitism Using Public Opinion Survey Data. American Sociological Review 50 (4):458–474.Google Scholar
World Bank. 2010. Available from http://databank.worldbank.org/data/home.aspx (accessed February 2013).Google Scholar
Zaller, John. 1992. The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Frølund Thomsen supplementary material

Online Appendix

Download Frølund Thomsen supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 216.3 KB