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Education, public support for institutions, and the separation of powers
[journal article]
Abstract A successful democratic transition requires citizens to embrace a new set of political institutions. Citizens' support is vital for these institutions to uphold the burgeoning constitutional and legal order. Courts, for example, often rely on citizens' support and threat of electoral punishment agai... view more
A successful democratic transition requires citizens to embrace a new set of political institutions. Citizens' support is vital for these institutions to uphold the burgeoning constitutional and legal order. Courts, for example, often rely on citizens' support and threat of electoral punishment against the government to enforce their rulings. In this article, I consider whether education under democracy can engender this support. Using regression discontinuity, difference-in-differences, and difference-in-difference-in-differences designs, I find an additional year of schooling after the fall of the Berlin Wall has similar positive downstream effects on East Germans’ support across institutions. Since schooling similarly affects public support for judicial, legislative, and executive institutions, citizens are not necessarily inclined to electorally punish the other branches when they ignore a court's ruling. This potential inability of courts to constrain unlawful government behavior threatens the foundation of the separation of powers and the survival of democracy.... view less
Keywords
ALLBUS; education; separation of powers; political institution; constitution; legal order; government policy; court
Classification
Political Process, Elections, Political Sociology, Political Culture
Political System, Constitution, Government
Free Keywords
causal inference; public support for institutions; ALLBUS 2000; ALLBUS 2002; ALLBUS 2008; ALLBUS 2012; ALLBUS 2018
Document language
English
Publication Year
2023
Page/Pages
p. 570-587
Journal
Political Science Research and Methods (PSRM), 11 (2023) 3
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1017/psrm.2022.29
ISSN
2049-8489
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed