The Effect of Education and Partisanship on Individual Free Market Beliefs.

• In Event: 40420 - Section on Political Sociology Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 13: The Politics of Education

Abstract

Sociological research analyzing the effect of education on political attitudes concludes that higher levels of education are associated with an increase in liberal attitudes. Research in Political Science, however, gives reason to believe that partisanship is an important effect modifier in the relationship between education and political attitudes. This research argues that education provides the cognitive resources to defend one’s existing political attitudes. Additionally, we theorize that macro-level changes in the education system and changes in student demographic distribution may challenge the supposed “liberalizing effect” of education on attitudes. We limit our focus to analysis of attitudes toward the free market as these have important implications for economic development. Using the World Values Survey, we show that at higher levels of education, Republicans and Democrats are further apart in their free-market attitudes than Republicans and Democrats at lower levels of education. We conclude with a discussion of these findings’ implications.

Author

• Michael Ervin, Baylor University