Widening the participation gap: the effect of educational track on reported voting in England

Abstract

This article explores the effect of tracked education in upper secondary on voting behaviour. It discusses two causal mechanisms that link tracked education to greater disparities of political participation: the curriculum and peer socialization. Data of Waves 1, 2, 5 and 7 of the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England (LSYPE) is used to assess the hypothesis that educational track has an independent effect on voting. Controlling for several pre- and post-track influences, the paper shows that students who have taken vocational courses in less prestigious schools indeed have lower reported voting levels at age 20 than those who have pursued an academic qualification (A levels) in prestigious schools. It is proposed that the effect of tracked education on political participation is likely to vary across Europe and that this variation may well be explained by differences across Europe in the extent to which the academic and vocational tracks are integrated, both in terms of the curriculum and in their social intake.

Keywords: Participation gap; Political participation; Stratification; Tracked education; Voting.