| ID | 177183 |
| Title Proper | Non-Democratic Roots of Mass Education |
| Other Title Information | evidence from 200 years |
| Language | ENG |
| Author | PAGLAYAN, AGUSTINA S |
| Summary / Abstract (Note) | Because primary education is often conceptualized as a pro-poor redistributive policy, a common argument is that democratization increases its provision. But primary education can also serve the goals of autocrats, including redistribution, promoting loyalty, nation-building, and/or industrialization. To examine the relationship between democratization and education provision empirically, I leverage new datasets covering 109 countries and 200 years. Difference-in-differences and interrupted time series estimates find that, on average, democratization had no or little impact on primary school enrollment rates. When unpacking this average null result, I find that, consistent with median voter theories, democratization can lead to an expansion of primary schooling, but the key condition under which it does—when a majority lacked access to primary schooling before democratization—rarely holds. Around the world, state-controlled primary schooling emerged a century before democratization, and in three-fourths of countries that democratized, a majority already had access to primary education before democratization. |
| `In' analytical Note | American Political Science Review Vol. 115, No.1; Feb 2021: p.179 - 198 |
| Journal Source | American Political Science Review 2021-03 115, 1 |
| Key Words | Mass Education ; Non-Democratic Roots |