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).
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