The Socio-Political Education Cleavage in France
The socio-political education cleavage in France Are the lower educated structurally underrepresented in French democracy? Master Thesis Public administration Student: Koen Damhuis Student number: 3 1 1 2 8 5 3 Supervisor: Dr. Harmen Binnema Co-supervisor: Prof. dr. Mark Bovens School of Governance Utrecht University July 2012 Il n´y a sans doute pas de pays dans le monde où les diplômes soient mieux respectés, et leur validité aussi persistante. […] En France, le diplôme est une fusée à longue portée qui, sauf accident, vous propulse jusqu´à la retraite.1 Alain Peyrefitte La démocratie n´atteint pas ses buts quand les moins instruits sont les plus distants à l´égard de l´action politique. 2 Jérôme Jaffré 1 Peyrefitte, A. Le Mal Français, Fayard, 2006, p. 347 (Plon, 1976) 2 Jaffré, J., Le gouvernement des instruits, In: Duhamel, O. & Jaffré, J (dir.) L’état de l’opinion, 1991, Éditions de2 Jaffré, Seuil, J., 1991, Le gouvernement p.146 des instruits, In: Duhamel, O. & Jaffré, J (dir.) L’état de l’opinion, 1991, Éditions de Seuil, 1991, p.146 2 Summary By coining the notion “diploma democracy” and developing its accompanying theory, Bovens and Wille launched a debate among political scientists in the Netherlands a few years ago. According to the two authors, the lower educated citizens would have been ousted from practically every Dutch political arena during the last decades. From Parliament to government as well as in civil society – all these domains would nowadays be ruled by those with the highest diplomas. In addition to this increasing democratic underrepresentation, the lower educated would socially be more and more separated from their higher educated fellow citizens, thereby holding increasingly diverging political convictions.
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