TY  - JOUR
AU  - Glaeser,Edward
AU  - Ponzetto,Giacomo
AU  - Shleifer,Andrei
TI  - Why Does Democracy Need Education?
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 12128
PY  - 2006
Y2  - April 2006
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w12128
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w12128.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Edward L. Glaeser
Department of Economics
315A Littauer Center
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA 02138
Tel: 617/495-0575
Fax: 617/495-7730
E-Mail: eglaeser@harvard.edu

Giacomo Ponzetto
CREI, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, and Barcelona GSE
C/ Ramon Trias Fargas, 25-27
08005 Barcelona
Spain
Tel: +34 93 542 2829
Fax: +34 93 542 2826
E-Mail: gponzetto@crei.cat

Andrei Shleifer
Department of Economics
Harvard University
Littauer Center M-9
Cambridge, MA 02138
Tel: 617/495-5046
Fax: 617/496-1708
E-Mail: ashleifer@harvard.edu
AB  - Across countries, education and democracy are highly correlated. We motivate empirically and then model a causal mechanism explaining this correlation. In our model, schooling teaches people to interact with others and raises the benefits of civic participation, including voting and organizing. In the battle between democracy and dictatorship, democracy has a wide potential base of support but offers weak incentives to its defenders. Dictatorship provides stronger incentives to a narrower base. As education raises the benefits of civic participation, it raises the support for more democratic regimes relative to dictatorships. This increases the likelihood of democratic revolutions against dictatorships, and reduces that of successful anti-democratic coups.
ER  -