Education and democratic citizenship in America

Norman H. Nie

Norman H. Nie, Jane Junn, and Kenneth Stehlik-Barry explore in this volume the causal relationships between education and democratic citizenship. They argue that citizenship encompasses both political engagement in pursuit of political interests as well as commitment to democratic values that temper what citizens are willing to do to win in politics. Education affects these two dimensions in distinct ways, influencing democratic enlightenment through cognitive proficiency and sophistication, and political engagement through position in social networks. For characteristics of enlightenment, formal education simply adds to the degree to which citizens support and are knowledgeable about democratic principles. But for political engagement, education orders the distribution of social position and connections, creating an inherently uneven political playing field. The authors develop...

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