If parents value their children's education and elections make politicians accountable to voters, why does educational inequality vary so drastically among the world's democracies? This study formulates an answer to that puzzle by proposing a new theory to explain how the incentives of both families and elected officials shape a democracy's distribution of schooling. Its core hypothesis is that a democracy's level of educational inequality results from the interaction of two factors: 1) perceptions of social mobility within society, which shape how much parents politically prioritize education vis-a-vis other social spending programs; and 2) the degree of autonomy that local politicians have over education, which determines whether elected officials cater to geographically concentrated or diffuse interests.
This study argues that democracies that possess both low social mobility and high local government autonomy over education will yield the most unequal distributions of schooling, irrespective of other factors. Low social mobility will cause poorer parents to devalue education politically relative to richer parents because the expected utility of educational investments will be less than the immediate gains they receive from short-term social spending programs. In the presence of residential sorting by income and class, high local government autonomy over schools will then cause politicians to court these heterogeneous voter preferences. This study tests its key theoretical assertions with large-N, cross-country data, nationally and sub-nationally representative surveys, and a set of quasi-natural experiments.
In both Mexico and Poland, the project will implement original household surveys that cover a nationally representative sample of low-, middle-, and high-income voters. The surveys will cover: 1) the expected returns to education; 2) how education ranks in a list of voter spending priorities; 3) the engagement of citizens on issues of education and how this shapes political behavior; and 4) background demographics. Information gleaned from the surveys will offer unique insight into how citizens translate demand for schooling into political action, conditional on personal income and perceived social mobility.
Intellectual Merit: Although prior studies in comparative politics have explored the causes of cross-country differences in educational averages-as measured by levels of student financing, test scores, etc.-few have sought to explain the wide dispersions of achievement and resources that exist within nations. Understanding the roots of cross-country variation in educational inequality is vital given that distributions of schooling are equally, if not more, instrumental than averages in influencing far-reaching social outcomes such as health, wealth, and political participation. This study fills that void by advancing a theory about how social mobility interacts with political institutions to precipitate equal or unequal educational systems.
Broader Impacts: Education-perhaps more than any other policy area-implicates a wide range of social and economic outcomes that bear directly on human well-being. This study helps to elucidate the structural causes of today's most pressing educational challenges: closing achievement gaps, reforming under-resourced and dysfunctional schools, and graduating students who are equipped to compete in a globalized, skill-intensive world. In the United States and across the world, policymakers struggle to provide all students with a baseline level of educational opportunity. This study provides a fresh lens for understanding the roots of such inequities and how policymakers can design innovative solutions to mitigate them.
