Education systems and inequality of civic and political engagement

In addition to increasing cognitive skills and preparing students for the labor market, one of the core tasks of education is to prepare citizens for participation in democracy. Considering the ideal of democratic equality, it is important to know the degree to which civic outcomes of education are distributed equally. Although there is substantial evidence that features of education and civic and political engagement are related, the impact of the education system has been understudied in this context. In this dissertation it is examined whether a relationship exists between features of the education system and (inequality of) civic and political engagement. Two features of the education system are examined that have been found to be associated with differential outcomes of education: 1. curricular tracking and 2. standardization. Various types of civic and political engagement are observed, such as civic knowledge, interest in politics, and the intention to vote. The findings indicate that the education system matters for the distribution of civic and political engagement. The results also demonstrate that the relation between tracking and civic and political engagement is mediated by students’ literacy, students’ academic self-efficacy (micro-mechanisms), and enrollment rates in higher education (macro-mechanism).