Education and civic engagement: A comparative study of the benefits of post-compulsory education in England and Germany
Publication Date
2017-05Journal Title
Longitudinal and Lifecourse Studies
ISSN
1757-9597
Publisher
The Society for Longitudinal and Life Course Studies
Volume
8
Issue
2
Pages
152-168
Language
English
Type
Article
This Version
VoR
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Salter, E., Kuemmerling, A., Bond, R., & Sabates Aysa, R. (2017). Education and civic engagement: A comparative study of the benefits of post-compulsory education in England and Germany. Longitudinal and Lifecourse Studies, 8 (2), 152-168. https://doi.org/10.14301/llcs.v8i2.372
Abstract
This paper examines the role of different types of post-compulsory education in determining civic engagement (political interest and election participation) in England and Germany. The educational systems of England and Germany provide ideal comparators for investigating the social benefits of education, in particular those that accrue from vocational education. The paper uses two longitudinal panel surveys, the British Household Panel Survey and the German Socio-Economic Panel for empirical purposes. Contrary to our expectations, our findings revealed few differences between the two countries: the level of political interest is the same for youth who had a vocational degree as those without any further qualifications, in both England and Germany. Similarly, greater levels of interest in politics were observed in adulthood for youth who had achieved academic qualifications in both countries. Likewise voting behaviour in particular was associated with the achievement of academic qualifications in Germany and to some extent with the achievement of mixed vocational and academic qualifications in England.
Keywords
education, civic engagement, voting, politics, comparative, England, Germany
Sponsorship
This research was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council under grant ES/J021326/1.
Funder references
Campaign for Female Education (Camfed) International (unknown)
William and Flora Hewlett Foundation (2016-5018)
ESRC (via University of Sussex) (unknown)
Embargo Lift Date
2100-01-01
Identifiers
External DOI: https://doi.org/10.14301/llcs.v8i2.372
This record's URL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/261831
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