Overeducation and political preferences: Effects of educational mismatch on ideological self-placement, radicalism, and left-right voting
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.22325/fes/res.2023.158Keywords:
Overeducation, political preferences, ideology, voting, status inconsistencyAbstract
The aim of the article is to study the relationship between the experience of overeducation and political preferences in Spain, a country with a high rate of overeducation. Using survey data from two post-electoral surveys, we estimate Diagonal Reference Models to test hypotheses on the effects of educational mismatch on ideological self-placement, ideological radicalism, and left-right voting. We find indications that overeducation is somewhat associated with a more left-wing position and with a higher probability of voting for left-wing parties. These effects are modest and are moderated by age: they are only found for young workers. This could be due to contextual reasons (in Spain political discourse has framed overeducation as a problem affecting young people) or to structural factors (status inconsistency is only politically relevant when the degree of structural crystallization of status positions is low).
References
Alonso, L. E. (2012). Crisis, indignación ciudadana y movimientos sociales. Dossieres Economistas sin Fronteras, 6, 4-7.
Amoretti, U. (1999). Does labour under-utilization affect political attitudes? Southern European Society and Politics, 4(3), 150-183.
Baker, D. (2014). The schooled society. Stanford University Press.
Beissinger, M., & Sasse, G. (2014). An end to “patience”? The Great Recession and economic protest in Eastern Europe. In N. Bermeo, & L.M. Bartels (Eds.), Mass politics in tough times: Opinions, votes, and protest in the Great Recession. Oxford University Press.
Berg, I. (1971). Education and jobs: The great training robbery. Praeger.
Blalock, H.M. (1966). The identification problem and theory building: The case of status inconsistency. American Sociological Review, 31(1), 52-61.
Blalock, H. M. (1967a). Status inconsistency and interaction: Some alternative models. American Journal of Sociology, 73(3), 305-315.
Blalock, H. M. (1967b). Status inconsistency, status integration and structural effects. American Sociological Review, 32(5), 790-801.
Broom, L., & Jones, F.L. (1970). Status consistency and political preference: The Australian case. American Sociological Review, 35(6):989-1001.
Brown, W., Cretser, G., & Lasswell, T. (1988). Measuring status inconsistency: More trouble than it’s worth? Sociological Perspectives, 31(2), 213-237.
Burris, V. (1983). The social and political consequence of overeducation. American Sociological Review, 48(4), 454-467.
Campante, F., & Chor, D. (2012). Why was the Arab World poised for revolution? Schooling, economic opportunities, and the Arab Spring. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 26(2), 167-188.
Cox, D. R. (1990). Role of models in statistical analysis. Statistical Science, 5(2), 169-174.
Derber, C. (1979). Underemployment and the American dream: “Underemployment-consciousness” and radicalism among young workers. Sociological Inquiry, 49(4), 37-44.
Dore, R. (1976). The diploma disease. University of California Press.
Duncan, O. D. (1966) Methodological issues in the analysis of social mobility. In N. Smelser, & S. M. Lipset (Eds.). Social structure and mobility in economic development. Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Eitzen, D.S. (1972-1973). Status consistency and consistency of political beliefs. Public Opinion Quarterly, 36(4), 541-548.
Ferrante, F. (2017). Great Expectations: The Unintended Consequences of Educational Choices. Social Indicators Research, 131, 745-767.
Freeman, R. (1976). The overeducated American. Academic Press.
Geschwender, J. (1967). Continuities in theories of status consistency and cognitive dissonance. Social Forces, 46(2), 160-171.
Gobernado, R. (2009). Consecuencias sociales y culturales de la sobreeducación. Papers, 91, 81-102.
Goffman, E. (1957). Status consistency and preference for change in power distribution. American Sociological Review, 22(3), 275-281.
Jackson, E., & Curtis, R. (1972). Effects of vertical mobility and status inconsistency: A body of negative evidence. American Sociological Review, 37(6), 701-713.
Johnson, G. J., & Johnson, W. R. (2000). Perceived Overqualification and Dimensions of Job Satisfaction: A Longitudinal Analysis. The Journal of Psychology: Interdisciplinary and Applied, 134(5), 537-555.
Kaiser, C. (2018). DRM: Stata module to fit Sobel’s Diagonal Reference Model (DRM). https://ideas.repec.org/c/boc/bocode/s458506.html
Kaiser, C., & Trinh, N. A. (2021). Does social class affect life satisfaction in Europe? European Sociological Review, 57(5), 713-730.
Kalleberg, A., & Sorensen, A. (1973). The measurement of the effects of overtraining on job attitudes. Sociological Methods and Research, 2(2), 215-238.
Kelly, K. D., & Chambliss, W. (1966). Status consistency and political attitudes. American Sociological Review, 31(3), 375-382.
Lenski, G. (1954). Status crystallization: A non-vertical dimension of social status. American Sociological Review, 19(4), 405-413.
Lenski, G. (1967). Status inconsistency and the vote: A four nation test. American Sociological Review, 32(2), 298-301.
Mason, P. (2013). Why it’s still kicking off everywhere: The new global revolutions. Verso.
McMahon, W. (2002) Education and development: Measuring the social benefits, Oxford University Press.
McMahon, W. (2009). Higher learning, greater good: The private and social benefits of higher education. The Johns Hopkins University Press.
Medina, L. (2015). Izquierda y derecha en España. Un estudio longitudinal y comparado. Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas.
Medina, L., y Caínzos, M. (2018). Clase e ideología en España: patrones de diferenciación y de cambio. Revista de Estudios Políticos, 181, 97-133.
Milkman, R. (2017). A new political generation: Millennials and the post-2008 wave of protest. American Sociological Review, 82(1), 1-31.
Portes, A. (1972). Status inconsistency and lower-class leftist radicalism. Sociological Quarterly, 13(3), 361-382.
Ramiro, L., & Gómez, R. (2017). Radical-left populism during the Great Recession: Podemos and its competition with the established radical left. Political Studies, 65(1S), 108-126.
Ramos, M. (2016). Competencies, firms and qualification mismatch: Returns to education and its limits [Tesis de doctorado]. Universidad de Alcalá
Rush, G. (1967). Status consistency and right-wing extremism. American Sociological Review, 32(1), 86-92.
Smith, T. (1969). Structural crystallization, status inconsistency and political partisanship. American Sociological Review, 34(6), 907-921.
Sobel, M. E. (1981). Diagonal mobility models: A substantively motivated class of designs for the analysis of mobility effects. American Sociological Review, 4(6), 893-906.
Sobel, M.E. (1985). Social mobility and fertility revisited: Some new models for the analysis of the mobility effects hypothesis. American Sociological Review, 50(5), 699-712.
Treiman, D. J. (1966). Status discrepancy and prejudice. American Journal of Sociology, 71(6), 651-664.
Turchin, P. (2010). Political instability may be a contributor in the coming decade. Nature, 463.
Turchin, P., & Korotayev, A (2020). The 2010 structural-demographic forecast for the 2010-2020 decade: A retrospective assessment. PLoS ONE, 15(8), e0237458.
Vaisey, S. (2006). Education and its discontents: Overqualification in America, 1972-2002. Social Forces, 85(2), 835-864.
Voces, C., & Caínzos, M. (2021). Overeducation as status Inconsistency: Effects on job satisfaction, subjective well-being and the image of social stratification. Social Indicators Research, 153(3), 979–1010.
Voces, C., & Caínzos, M. (2022). The political significance of overeducation: Status inconsistency, attitudes towards the political system and political participation in a high-overeducation context. Social Sciences, 11, 374.
Wiedner, J. (2022). Political and social consequences of qualification mismatches: A bounding approach to status inconsistency. Social Forces, 101(1), 150‐175.
Whitt, H. P. (1983). Status inconsistency: A body of negative evidence or a statistical artifact. Social Forces, 62(1), 201-233.
Zhang, X. (2008). Status inconsistency revisited: An improved statistical model. European Sociological Review, 24(82), 155-168.
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2023 Miguel Caínzos, Carmen Voces
![Creative Commons License](http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc/4.0/88x31.png)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
• The transfer of the copyright of the article to Revista Española de Sociología.
• The assignment to the Revista Española de Sociología of the rights of commercial exploitation of the article to third parties both in the offset and digital formats, as well as to the search engines and platforms that may serve as intermediaries for the sale or knowledge of the article.