To what extent does a country’s education, socioeconomic, and institutional environment influence the effect of micro-level education on political orientations? Despite the well-known central role of education in explaining political culture, little or ambiguous knowledge prevails on how micro-level education impacts political culture orientations across different environments. Aiming at contributing to clarifying this, we explore the effect of individuals’ education on political culture orientations as moderated by the following macro-level variables: the educational level, the socioeconomic context (Human Development Index and unemployment rate), and the democratic context (quality and durability). We look at Europe and Latin America, based on data from the European Social Survey and the AmericasBarometer. Our findings show that the country’s education level, its socioeconomic, and institutional characteristics play an important role in modulating the effect of individuals’ education on political culture orientations, offering strong evidence of the pervasiveness of the cumulative model.

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Political culture,Education,Democratic institutions,Socioeconomic context,Europe,Latin America

• Political Science - Social Sciences