Deliberate Disengagement: How Education Can Decrease Political Participation in Electoral Authoritarian Regimes

TLDR

Education typically boosts political participation in democracies, yet in electoral authoritarian regimes it can provoke deliberate disengagement. The study tests this hypothesis in Zimbabwe by exploiting cohort differences in schooling created by a major educational reform. Using these cohort variations, the authors examine how increased education influences voting, political contact, and civic engagement, while also measuring economic outcomes, political interest, democratic support, and opposition criticism. They find that higher education reduces voting, political contact, and community meeting attendance, an effect that dissipates after the 2008 competitive election, and that educated voters enjoy better economic outcomes, greater political interest, stronger democratic support, yet are more critical of the government and favor opposition parties.

Abstract

A large literature examining advanced and consolidating democracies suggests that education increases political participation. However, in electoral authoritarian regimes, educated voters may instead deliberately disengage. If education increases critical capacities, political awareness, and support for democracy, educated citizens may believe that participation is futile or legitimizes autocrats. We test this argument in Zimbabwe—a paradigmatic electoral authoritarian regime—by exploiting cross-cohort variation in access to education following a major educational reform. We find that education decreases political participation, substantially reducing the likelihood that better-educated citizens vote, contact politicians, or attend community meetings. Consistent with deliberate disengagement, education’s negative effect on participation dissipated following 2008’s more competitive election, which (temporarily) initiated unprecedented power sharing. Supporting the mechanisms underpinning our hypothesis, educated citizens experience better economic outcomes, are more interested in politics, and are more supportive of democracy, but are also more likely to criticize the government and support opposition parties.