How does the education of citizens affect the politics in the country?

Contrary to popular belief, scienceinseparable from politics. Moreover, neither science nor politics can be spoken of as something existing in a vacuum separately, because the decision about who will be engaged in science or politics is historically made by society. Within the university walls, political scientists are engaged in this special field of activity. They are also interested in the activities of political institutions and the relationship between people, society and the state. Recently, researchers at Georgetown University's Center for Education and Human Resources have documented an alarming rise in authoritarianism around the world. Scientists understand authoritarianism as a form of state power based on the unconditional authority of the ruling subject. In other words, the authoritarian structure of the state can be characterized by the absence of true democracy both in terms of free admission to elections and in matters of government. Interestingly, according to the results of recent scientific studies, the higher the level of education in a society, the less chances that an authoritarian leader will come to power.

It turned out that the best defense against authoritarianism is better educated citizens.

A political map of the World

Today in the world political arena in differentthere are 193, 195, 237, 245, 248, or 253 countries in the world, depending on the definition. At the same time, 193 states are members of the world's largest intergovernmental organization, the UN, although there are 195 recognized sovereign states on the planet. Among them, two countries that are not members of the UN are Palestine and the Vatican (the so-called observer states).

In addition to sovereign nations, there are autonomousself-governing political units that are part of a sovereign state, but not part of the mainland. Also, researchers identify non-self-governing territories that are either not recognized as such, or partially recognized.

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The large political map of the world looks like this.

For example, Taiwan is an island state withChina's southeastern coast, with a multi-party democracy and a population of 23.6 million, has an undefined political status as the authorities of both Taiwan and China claim the territory. Partially recognized states or state entities include Abkhazia, Kosovo, Cook Islands, Northern Cyprus, Saharan Arab Democratic Republic (Western Sahara), Somaliland and Transnistria.

Political structure of states

Two centuries ago, most countries were autocracies or colonies. Today, on the contrary, most countries are democracies, which is quite interesting since democracy Is a recent achievement of humanity.

It is also interesting that according to the datanumerous scientific studies, the economic success of the state is usually accompanied by political freedom. Moreover, history shows that the countries in which democracy was established earlier than others were the first to achieve sustainable economic growth.

According to Freedom House, 2020 marks the 15th consecutive year of declining global freedom.

And yet, at the end of 2019, the work was publishedpolitical scientist Christopher Klaasen, whose results state that "democracy is losing popularity even in those countries where it seemed particularly stable until recently." Indeed, despite the fact that there are more and more democracies in the world, citizens' satisfaction with the political system is declining.

Read even more fascinating articles about the structure of society and the future of mankind on our channel in Yandex.Zen. There are regularly published articles that are not on the site.

So, in the West in recent years, there has been a growing demand forpopulism, and in countries such as Chile, Bolivia and Hong Kong, a hybrid regime is established - a mixed type of political regime that was established during an unfinished democratic transition. Countries whose residents are satisfied with democracy include Sweden (69%), the Philippines (69%) and Indonesia (65%). Least of all, the way democracy works is liked by the citizens of Greece (84%), Mexico (85%) and Brazil (83%).

As Klaasen writes in a paper published inIn the American Political Science Review, with the rise of democratic institutions, approval for democracy tends to fall. And vice versa: as soon as they decline, the democratic aspirations of society grow. The scientist came to this conclusion after studying data from 135 countries of the world.

Education and world politics

According to a long-standing theory in political science, education is key to the emergence and sustainability of democracyas it promotes politicalindividual participation and fosters a collective sense of civic duty. If we follow this theory, in the coming years we will be able to observe a positive correlation between education and measures of democratization of states. According to ourworldindata.com, those countries that had higher average educational attainment in 1970 are also the countries in which democracies are more likely to emerge today.

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Authoritarian countries are highlighted in yellow on the map.

As Jamie points out in his article for Big ThinkMerisotis is the president and CEO of the Lumina Foundation, and those with higher levels of education are much less likely to be authoritarian in their parenting preferences than others.

“Moving towards raising children who are themselves more tolerant, independent and inquisitive may be the most profound impact of education on society,” writes Merisotis.

But why does education destroy authoritarianinstallation? Higher education at its best seeks to foster independent thinking and critical examination of the established order of things, not to mention inquisitiveness and curiosity. All of this is in stark contrast to the blind acceptance of the information and opinions of authorities.

Higher education also introduces people todifferent ideas and cultures, showing that differences are not as bad or dangerous as people are used to believe. Education helps people better understand the abstract principles of democracy and equality, and how to deal with complexities and differences in society. Education also helps improve the interpersonal skills required for civic participation in a democracy.

Of course, formal training in itself is notcan change the equation, but in the absence of well-informed citizens who can critically assess the ideas and perspectives of those in office, the consequences can be daunting.