Adult Education and Political Participation: Evidence from East German Volkshochschulen

Li Kathrin Kaja Rupieper () and Stephan Thomsen ()
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Li Kathrin Kaja Rupieper: Leibniz University Hannover
Stephan Thomsen: Leibniz University Hannover

No 18729, IZA Discussion Papers from IZA Network @ LISER

Abstract: This paper examines the effects of voluntary, non-formal adult education on political attitudes, participation, and partisanship, exploiting the expansion of courses at East German Volkshochschulen (VHS) after reunification. Combining administrative VHS data with individual survey data and federal election results, we use quasi-random variation in local course availability to identify causal effects in two-way fixed effects models. We find no significant impact on political attitudes and partisanship, suggesting that political socialization and ideologization play limited roles in adult education. Yet, courses significantly affect some forms of political participation, as they increase volunteering and reduce turnout. These effects are not driven by civic education courses. Further participatory behaviors remain unaffected. This variation in effects across participatory behaviors hints to a more complex relationship than commonly assumed: One may only understand the effect of adult education on political participation when understanding its effects on other areas of life as well, given the interplay of the productive and political roles of human capital.

Keywords: lifelong learning; democracy; political participation; turnout; East Germany; German reunification (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H52 I26 N34 P20 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu and nep-soc
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