Beyond the Diploma Divide: Field of Education and Ideological Divisions among College Educated

66 Pages Posted: 14 Feb 2025

See all articles by Liesbet Hooghe

Liesbet Hooghe

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Political Science Department; European University Institute - Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies (RSCAS)

Gary Marks

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Political Science Department

Jonne Kamphorst

Stanford University

Julia Schulte-Cloos

University of Marburg

Date Written: November 11, 2024

Abstract

Education, conceived as the level of a person's education, is a key variable in explaining political attitudes and behavior. This study extends analysis of the effects of education to its substance-the field in which a person is educated. We adapt an educational skill schema developed by education sociologists to explain political attitudes and partisanship in Europe and the United States. An individual educated in a field conveying human-centered skills is likely to have distinctly more liberal attitudes on race, redistribution, the environment, trust in elections, and much more likely to identify with a progressive political party. Data from the General Social Survey and from surveys conducted by the authors in the United States and Europe suggest that a person's field of education explains more variation in liberal/conservative attitudes than whether that person went to college or not. In short, the reach of education for predicting political attitudes goes much beyond the diploma divide. Polarization in western societies extends to college educated. Dynamic data from Germany reveal that a person's field of education is not just a proxy for earlier socialization but has a direct effect during college.

Keywords: Education, field of education, democracy, Europe, United States, political behavior

Suggested Citation

Hooghe, Liesbet and Marks, Gary and Kamphorst, Jonne and Schulte-Cloos, Julia, Beyond the Diploma Divide: Field of Education and Ideological Divisions among College Educated (November 11, 2024). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=5072375 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5072375

Liesbet Hooghe (Contact Author)

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Political Science Department ( email )

Chapel Hill, NC 27599
United States

European University Institute - Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies (RSCAS) ( email )

Villa Schifanoia, Via Boccaccio 121
50016 San Domenico di Fiesole
Florence, Florence 50014
Italy

HOME PAGE: http://https://hooghe.web.unc.edu

Gary Marks

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Political Science Department ( email )

Chapel Hill, NC 27599
United States

Jonne Kamphorst

Stanford University ( email )

Julia Schulte-Cloos

University of Marburg ( email )

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