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Diploma Democracy: The Rise of Political Meritocracy by Mark Bovens, Anchrit Wille (Hardcover, 2017)

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ISBN-13: 9780198790631, 978-0198790631. virtually absent from almost all political arenas. Diploma Democracy. Lay politics lies at the heart of democracy. Political offices are the only offices for which no formal qualifications are required.

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Most democracies in Western Europe are diploma democracies - ruled by those with the highest formal qualifications. Citizens with low or medium educational qualifications currently make up about 70 percent of the electorates, yet they have become virtually absent from almost all political arenas. University graduates have come to dominate all political institutions and venues, from political parties, parliaments and cabinets, to organised interests, deliberative settings, and Internet consultations. Education background is not neutral. Like class, or religion, it is an important source of social and political divides. Those who are well educated tend to be cosmopolitans, whereas the lesser educated citizens are more likely to be nationalists, as can be observed in the Brexit referendum and the rise of nationalist parties across western Europe. This book documents this rise of a political meritocracy and its consequences for democracy and the political landscape. It taps into the raging debate on increasing political inequalities and cultural divides in Western politics. It shows how different political and social developments have increased educational inequalities in politics, drawing on a vast amount of empirical evidence.