A Democratic Culture? Schooling, Inequality and Participation in Early Republic

• In Event: Social Coalitions, Competition, and Culture in Political Development

Abstract

It has long been thought that societies in which citizens are educated and where resources are less unequally distributed will be more likely to have a democratic culture where there is active participation in politics. Using a regression discontinuity design and township level data from Antebellum New York State we examine whether state education funding during the Common School Movement era contributed to higher subsequent levels of voter turnout via increased schooling and lower earnings inequality. According to one view of the Early Republic, the ingredients for a democratic culture involved early patterns of settlement, town development, and resource endowments – features exogenous to government action. According to a second view a democratic culture emerged because of vigorous government actions such as those to fund education. Our results point strongly towards the latter conclusion. New York townships that for exogenous reasons received more school funding had higher median earnings, lower subsequent levels of earnings inequality, and higher levels of voter turnout. But there were two caveats, increased education provision did little to reduce wealth inequality, and it also did little to increase support for making this culture truly democratic by enfranchising African Americans.

Authors

• Tine N Paulsen, New York University

• Kenneth F. Scheve, Yale University

• David Stasavage, New York University