A not so universal suffrage: How Europe’s political elites have become educational elites

Education levels are often cited as a key factor in explaining differences in opinion between voters, but as Mark Bovens and Anchrit Wille illustrate, many national parliaments have highly unrepresentative numbers of MPs with university degrees. They highlight that the number of MPs with degrees has increased substantially in western European countries over recent decades, and that the absence of low and medium educated citizens in parliaments and other political venues constitutes a serious democratic deficit.

This article draws on the authors’ book, Diploma Democracy: The Rise of Political Meritocracy which was published by Oxford University Press in 2017.

• Primary Source

The Spectator, 07.01.17: What explains the idiocy of the liberal elite? It’s their education https://www.spectator.co.uk/2017/01/what-explains-the-idiocy-of-the-liberal-elite-its-their-education/

The Guardian, 05.10.16: How the education gap is tearing politics apart https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/oct/05/trump-brexit-education-gap-tearing-politics-apart

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