Social Democrats and the New Partisan Politics of Public Investment in Education

Journal of European Public Policy, Forthcoming

48 Pages Posted: 29 Aug 2008

See all articles by Marius R. Busemeyer

Marius R. Busemeyer

University of Konstanz - Department of Politics and Management

Date Written: August 1, 2008

Abstract

This paper studies the impact on public education spending of social democratic participation in government. By means of a pooled time-series analysis of spending in OECD democracies, it is shown that social democrats have increased public spending primarily on higher education. This finding is at odds with simple class-based models of partisan preferences (Boix) that predict a preference for non-tertiary education. As an alternative, the notion of a "new politics of public investment in education" (Iversen) is presented. From this perspective, political parties are not merely transmission belts for the economic interests of social classes, but use policies and spending strategically to attract and consolidate voter groups. By increasing public investment in tertiary education, social democrats cater to their core electoral constituencies (for example, by expanding enrollment) and, at the same time, new middle class constituencies to escape electoral dilemmas and re-forge the cross-class alliance with the middle class.

Keywords: human capital, public spending, partisan theory, OECD countries

JEL Classification: H52, I22

Suggested Citation

Busemeyer, Marius R., Social Democrats and the New Partisan Politics of Public Investment in Education (August 1, 2008). Journal of European Public Policy, Forthcoming, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1259855

Marius R. Busemeyer (Contact Author)

University of Konstanz - Department of Politics and Management ( email )

Universitaetstrasse 10
Konstanz, D-78457
Germany

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