Pellicer, Miquel and Assaad, Ragui and Krafft, Caroline and Salemi, Colette (2022) Grievances or skills? The effect of education on youth political participation in Egypt and Tunisia. International Political Science Review, 43 (2). pp. 191-208. ISSN 0192-5121

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Abstract

The educated have figured prominently in protests and elections in several Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries. The dominant explanation for this pattern centers on grievances and unfulfilled aspirations due to low education returns in the MENA. However, the pattern may simply reflect the unequal participation observed in many democracies where education provides skills and resources that facilitate political participation. This article compares the roles of skills and grievances in explaining the relationship between education and youth political participation during and after the Arab Spring. We use youth surveys with detailed data on education and political participation from Egypt and Tunisia. We control for parental education and family background to partially account for the potential of background to drive the education and participation relationship. Overall, our results are consistent with the skill channel and lend little support to the grievance channel. Our findings raise concerns about the exclusion of uneducated youth from both unconventional and conventional political participation in MENA politics.

Item Type:	Article
Keywords:	Political participation; Middle East and North Africa; youth; education; grievances;
Academic Unit:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Economics, Finance and Accounting
Item ID:	16303
Identification Number:	https://doi.org/10.1177/0192512120927115
Depositing User:	Miquel Pellicer
Date Deposited:	13 Jul 2022 08:50
Journal or Publication Title:	International Political Science Review
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	Publisher
Use Licence:	This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

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