Education and Democratic Citizenship in America

by Nie, Norman H.; Junn, Jane; Stehlik-Barry, Kenneth

• ISBN13: 9780226583891
• ISBN10: 0226583899
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1996-08-01
• Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr

Summary

Formal education is crucial for creating enlightened and active citizens. The better educated are more engaged, more knowledgeable, and more politically tolerant. Despite a dramatic increase in education attainment over the last quarter century, political engagement has not risen at a commensurate level. How and why education affects citizenship in these ways has until now been a puzzle. Norman H. Nie, Jane Junn, and Kenneth Stehlik-Barry provide answers by uncovering the causal relationship between education and democratic citizenship. They argue that citizenship encompasses both political engagement in pursuit of interests and commitment to democratic values that temper what citizens can do to win in politics. Education affects the two dimensions in distinct ways. Especially significant is the influence of education on political engagement through occupational prominence and position in social networks. Formal education orders the distribution of social position and connections and creates an uneven political playing field.

Table of Contents

Figures and Tables

Education and Democratic Citizenship in America: Enlightened Political Engagement

Enlightened Political Engagement

Characteristics of Democratic Citizenship and Their Relationship to Education

What Links Education to Enlightened Political Engagement?

Cognitive and Positional Pathways

Integrating and Testing the Model

Confirming the Enlightenment and Political Engagement Dimensions

Reconceptualizing Educational Effects

Education and Democratic Citizenship from the 1970's to the 1990's

Defining and Operationalizing the Measures

Testing Educational Effects Over Time

Absolute and Relative Education in Synchronic Studies

Application to Cross-Sectional Surveys

Education and Democratic Citizenship in Other Nations: An Exploratory Comparative Analysis

The Future of Education and Democratic Citizenship: Some Implications of Our Findings

1990 Citizen Participation Study Questions

Weighting Procedures for the 1990 Citizen Participation Study Data

Basic Model by Race and Gender

Creating the Political Engagement and Enlightenment Scales

Nonrecursive Specifications

Educational Environment and Relative Education Measures

Documentation of the Over Time Data

Documentation of Unreported Coefficients

Bibliography

Index

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