Comments on: Using Experiments to Estimate the Effects of Education on Voter Turnout http://abstractpolitics.com/2010/02/using-experiments-to-estimate-the-effects-of-education-on-voter-turnout/ Reviewing the latest research in political science Tue, 06 Jul 2010 22:58:38 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Matt <span class="status">Unregistered</span> http://abstractpolitics.com/2010/02/using-experiments-to-estimate-the-effects-of-education-on-voter-turnout/comment-page-1/#comment-135 Matt Unregistered Wed, 10 Feb 2010 20:16:21 +0000 http://abstractpolitics.com/?p=172#comment-135 Okay, so education causes turnout. Then how do we explain Brody's paradox about turnout not rising since the 1960s even though education levels have risen? Seems all the more paradoxical now. I would guess that education has a sorting effect of sorting people into classes, and it's the higher classes that turn out more. If you can randomly induce one group to get more education and thereby end up in a higher class, then they experience an entirely different set of peer pressures when it comes to turnout than they would experience in a lower class. And those social pressures could be the proximate cause of higher turnout. <a href="http://abstractpolitics.com/2008/05/social-pressure-and-voter-turnout/" rel="nofollow">This article</a> would seem to support that sort of mechanism. Okay, so education causes turnout. Then how do we explain Brody’s paradox about turnout not rising since the 1960s even though education levels have risen? Seems all the more paradoxical now.

I would guess that education has a sorting effect of sorting people into classes, and it’s the higher classes that turn out more. If you can randomly induce one group to get more education and thereby end up in a higher class, then they experience an entirely different set of peer pressures when it comes to turnout than they would experience in a lower class. And those social pressures could be the proximate cause of higher turnout. This article would seem to support that sort of mechanism.

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