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Page 1 of 19

A Liberal Education
  • The Social and Political Impact of the Modern University
  • Brendan Apfeld, Emanuel Coman, John Gerring, Stephen Jessee
  • Published online:
    28 February 2024
    Print publication:
    18 January 2024
  • Enlisting a natural experiment, global surveys, and historical data, this book examines the university's evolution and its contemporary impact. Its authors conduct an unprecedented big-data comparative study of the consequences of higher education on ideology, democratic citizenship, and more. They conclude that university education has a profound effect on social and political attitudes across the world, greater than that registered by social class, gender, or age. A university education enhances political trust and participation, reduces propensities to crime and corruption, and builds support for democracy. It generates more tolerant attitudes toward social deviance, enhances respect for rationalist inquiry and scientific authority, and usually encourages support for Leftist parties and movements. It does not nurture support for taxation, redistribution, or the welfare state, and may stimulate opposition to these policies. These effects are summarized by the co-authors as liberal, understood in its classic, nineteenth-century meaning.

  • 7 - The Rise of a Liberal University

  • from Part IV - History
  • Brendan Apfeld, University of Texas, Austin, Emanuel Coman, Trinity College, Dublin, John Gerring, University of Texas, Austin, Stephen Jessee, University of Texas, Austin
  • Book:
    A Liberal Education
    Published online:
    28 February 2024
    Print publication:
    18 January 2024, pp 167-217

  • Summary

    This chapter begins with a thumbnail sketch of the history of universities. The rest of the chapter focuses on the modern era (1789–), where we home in on particular aspects of our topic: intellectuals, university faculty, student activism, university communities, and university graduates. In each section we try to ascertain historical patterns. When did universities become more liberal than the societies they are situated within, and how much more liberal are they today?

  • 6 - Mechanisms

  • from Part III - Extensions
  • Brendan Apfeld, University of Texas, Austin, Emanuel Coman, Trinity College, Dublin, John Gerring, University of Texas, Austin, Stephen Jessee, University of Texas, Austin
  • Book:
    A Liberal Education
    Published online:
    28 February 2024
    Print publication:
    18 January 2024, pp 147-164

  • Summary

    This chapter focuses on causal mechanisms. What aspect(s) of the university experience generates liberalizing effects? We begin by introducing three mechanisms that seem to promise broad applicability: economics, empowerment, and socialization. We argue that the latter offers the most compelling explanation. However, this is a difficult claim to establish empirically. In the concluding section, we discuss the difficulty of reaching a determination on the question of mechanisms, noting the many methodological obstacles that stand in the way.

  • Afterword

  • Brendan Apfeld, University of Texas, Austin, Emanuel Coman, Trinity College, Dublin, John Gerring, University of Texas, Austin, Stephen Jessee, University of Texas, Austin
  • Book:
    A Liberal Education
    Published online:
    28 February 2024
    Print publication:
    18 January 2024, pp 268-275

  • Summary

    This short Afterword focuses on the American university, which has become an epicenter of partisan combat in recent years. We show that although a university education may have greater impact on social and political attitudes in the US, that impact does not conform to the expectations of conservative critics.

  • 5 - Nuances

  • from Part III - Extensions
  • Brendan Apfeld, University of Texas, Austin, Emanuel Coman, Trinity College, Dublin, John Gerring, University of Texas, Austin, Stephen Jessee, University of Texas, Austin
  • Book:
    A Liberal Education
    Published online:
    28 February 2024
    Print publication:
    18 January 2024, pp 115-146

  • Summary

    This chapter explores nuances; for example, the size of the causal effects; heterogeneous effects across different research designs, specifications, and samples; potential moderators; the effect of university attendance on partisan identity; and the aggregation of individual-level effects to societal levels.

  • 10 - Synthesis

  • from Part V - Conclusions
  • Brendan Apfeld, University of Texas, Austin, Emanuel Coman, Trinity College, Dublin, John Gerring, University of Texas, Austin, Stephen Jessee, University of Texas, Austin
  • Book:
    A Liberal Education
    Published online:
    28 February 2024
    Print publication:
    18 January 2024, pp 253-267

  • Summary

    This is our attempt to put the previous chapters together in a coherent fashion. With that objective, we recapitulate the main arguments and survey the evidence. We begin by delving into the history of the university. Next, we examine evidence pertaining to the university’s effect on social and political attitudes, revisiting Part II of the book. In the third section, we address some of the nuances connected to those findings as well as the mechanisms at work, presented in Part III of the book. The final section takes a wide-angle view of our subject, speculating on the overall impact of universities on societies in the modern era, which we characterize as “soft power.”

  • 8 - Disciplinary Differences

  • from Part IV - History
  • Brendan Apfeld, University of Texas, Austin, Emanuel Coman, Trinity College, Dublin, John Gerring, University of Texas, Austin, Stephen Jessee, University of Texas, Austin
  • Book:
    A Liberal Education
    Published online:
    28 February 2024
    Print publication:
    18 January 2024, pp 218-231

  • Summary

    This chapter focuses on differences across disciplines. We investigate patterns over time as well as ideological differences at the present time. Since data is most plentiful for the US, this chapter focuses primarily on a single country.

Page 1 of 19