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Democratic Citizenship Through Adult Civic Education? A Review and Meta-Analysis

Fri, October 1, 6:00 to 7:30am PDT (6:00 to 7:30am PDT), TBA

Abstract

Established and new democracies are at risk of backsliding without deeply rooted democratic orientations and political engagement by its citizens. However, how is this crucial democratic citizenship built? International donors such as USAID, UNDP and the World Bank have devoted considerable resources over the past several decades to civic education programs designed to promote democratic political culture and mobilize political participation. Yet, it remains open how effective these programs are. Numerous studies from different fields – ranging from political science, economics, education, and psychology – have tried to answer this question. Here we go beyond single studies and instead conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis of the published and unpublished literature to answer the question whether (non-school) civic education successfully impacts important democratic attitudes and behavior. Further, we focus on two sub-questions to better understand 1) what features of civic education programs in terms of, e.g., pedagogy, content, are most effective, and 2) for which kinds of individuals and under what conditions? To answer these questions, we conduct a systematic literature search of all studies on this topic that use experimental or quasi-causal methods (e.g. RD, Diff-in-Diff, IV, FE). We will present a narrative analysis of the findings as well as a meta-analysis, which pools together all estimates and their uncertainties across all studies. The results from our study will allow us to draw generalized inference about the effectiveness of a crucial tool in the political toolset that can be used to build more resilient democratic societies and combat authoritarian threats.

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