Diploma democracy: The disappearance of the less educated from political life

Contemporary western democracies, such as The Netherlands, seem to have become diploma democracies. They are ruled by the well educated, the citizens with college and graduate diplomas, whereas the least educated tend to be absent in most political arenas. Of course, the well educated have always been more politically active than the less educated, but in the past decades this gap seems to have widened substantially. Well-educated citizens are more inclined to vote, or to visit consultative or deliberative meetings than citizens with a low level of education; and most, if not all, members of parliament, all political officials, and almost all of the political advocates and lobbyists, have college or graduate degrees. This Verkenning examines the rise, causes and effects of diploma democracy. The first part documents the extent to which the least educated have disappeared from political life in the past decades in The Netherlands and compares this with a number of OECD countries. The second part discusses several explanations. The final part of the essay is more evaluative in nature and examines the risks of representational distortions as a consequence of the rise of diploma democracy.