Post-Secondary Education and Canadian Political Behavior: How are the Level and Field of Study related to Turnout and Partisanship?

• Published in: The American review of Canadian studies Vol. 52; no. 2; pp. 139 - 162
• Main Authors: McGregor, R. Michael, Pruysers, Scott
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington Routledge 03.04.2022; Taylor & Francis Inc
• Subjects: education; Educational attainment; Higher education; Occupational choice; Partisanship; Political attitudes; Political behavior; Secondary education; survey research; Voter behavior; Voter turnout; voting behavior; Canada
• ISSN: 0272-2011; 1943-9954
• DOI: 10.1080/02722011.2022.2043659

Education is a well-known correlate of many political attitudes and behaviors. Despite the concept's ubiquitous use by researchers, however, few studies take seriously the question of how it should be operationalized. Measures of level of education are used inconsistently and coding decisions are rarely justified. More importantly, the relationship between the field of education and important outcome variables have been completely overlooked in Canada. That is, while researchers are aware that the amount of education one receives matters, they ignore the question of how the subject of that education might matter. We address these issues here, using data from over 4,000 Canadians to consider in detail the relationship between the level and field of education upon two important outcomes: turnout and partisanship. We conclude that measures of level of education should be as detailed as possible, and that the field of study, in particular, has significant effects.