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Review Article
What affects who participates in politics? Many studies point out that education is of central importance. In most studies of political behaviour it is found that individuals with higher education participate to a larger extent in political activities than individuals with less education.1
Why do highly educated persons participate more in political activities? In their seminal work, Verba, Schlozman and Brady explain that: 'Education enhances participation more or less directly by developing skills that are relevant to politics - the ability to speak and write, the knowledge of how to cope in an organizational setting'.2And Lewis-Beck et al. point out that: 'With more formal education comes a stronger interest in politics, a greater concern with elections, greater confidence in playing one's role as a citizen, and a deeper commitment to the norm of being a good citizen'.3Hence, education increases skills and knowledge but might also affect political interest and efficacy; factors that all in turn trigger participation. Moreover, in a classic text, Converse went even further by emphasizing that education 'is everywhere the universal solvent, and the relationship is always in the same direction. The higher the education, the greater the "good" values of the variable'.4This idea is, explicitly or implicitly, widely accepted in political behaviour research and the relationship between education and political participation is perhaps the most well-established relationship that exists in research on political behaviour.
However, recently a number of studies have started dealing with the question of whether education is a direct cause for political participation or merely works as a proxy for other factors.5The question about causality has become disputed in political behaviour research. This review article will provide an introduction and critical discussion of this debate.
Knowing who participates in politics is a central issue in political behaviour research. Finding out which model can correctly explain the relationship between education and participation has important implications. If education has no direct causal effect, then the relationship between education and participation found in most political behaviour research is misinterpreted. If we do not even know how the most frequently occurring relationship in participation research should be explained, our understanding of who participates in politics...