Education and political behaviour : evidence from the Catalan linguistic reform

Abstract

This paper studies the relationship between schooling and political behaviour in ethnically divided societies. It draws on survey data from Catalonia to investigate how the introduction in 1983 of a bilingual education system affects political behaviour. Using within and between cohort variation in exposure to Catalan language at school, we find that individuals who have experienced greater exposure to teaching in Catalan are more likely to declare to have voted in 1999 regional elections and to have chosen a Catalanist party.