Browsing by Author "Persson, Mikael"

Now showing 1 - 8 of 8

Does education cause participation in politics?
(2013-11-22) Persson, Mikael
In most studies of political behavior in Western countries, it is found that individuals with higher education participate to a greater extent in political activities than individuals with lower levels of education. According to the conventional view, education increases skills and knowledge but also affects political interest and political efficacy; factors that all in turn trigger political participation. This dissertation tests two alternative explanations to the conventional view. The first alternative – the relative education model – claims that the social status gained by education drives participation and not the educational experience. According to the second alternative explanation – the pre-adult socialization model – the relationship is largely due to self-selection effects. It suggests that pre-adult factors heavily affect both educational choice as well as political participation in adulthood. The first three papers evaluate the relative education model while the last two papers deal with the pre-adult socialization model. The first paper deals with the research question: Is the relative education model supported in the Swedish context? The second paper deals directly with the causal mechanism: Does social network position mediate the effect of education on political participation? The third article brings the discussion on the relative education model further by providing the first country comparative test of the relative education model, using data from 37 countries. Hence, it deals with the research question: Is the effect of education on political participation absolute or relative in a comparative perspective? The three first articles present evidence in favor of the relative education model. The fourth paper employs matching techniques on data from the UK to mimic an experimental test of the causal effect of higher education. It deals with the question: Is college education a cause or a proxy for political participation? This paper contributes to the discussion by using a more extensive set of pre-adult covariates than previous studies, including important information on childhood cognitive ability. The fifth paper moves from length of education to testing the impact of type of education. It presents a panel study that follows Swedish adolescents over time during the first year in the gymnasium (upper secondary level) in order to answer the question: Does type of education affect political participation? The findings of both paper four and five point in favor of the pre-adult socialization model; education seems to be a proxy rather than a cause for political participation. Taken together, the five papers provide weak evidence that the educational experience directly causes participation. Thus, the dissertation challenges the conventional view on how education is related to participation.
Education and political participation revisited
(2025) Persson, Mikael; Lindskog, Hilma
This chapter revisits the longstanding question of the relationship between education and political participation. It critically examines three dominant theoretical models: the absolute education model; the pre-adult socialization model; and the relative education model. The absolute education model posits that education directly enhances political engagement through increased civic skills and knowledge. In contrast, the pre-adult socialization model argues that factors preceding education, such as family background and cognitive abilities, are the primary drivers of political behaviour, with education serving merely as a proxy. The relative education model suggests that education's impact is mediated through social status and network effects, where the value of education is contingent upon the educational attainment of others in society. The chapter synthesizes empirical findings and methodological advancements.
Microglial Glutamate Transporters - Regulation of Expression and Possible Physiological Functions
(2007-05-15T06:52:39Z) Persson, Mikael
Microglia are considered as the immunocompetent cells of the central nervous system (CNS). Being the first line of defence, they have prominent roles in monitoring the homeostasis and the extracellular milieu and can rapidly and specifically react to any disturbances such as brain trauma, ischemia, neurodegenerative diseases, or infections. Microglia are normally adapted to a resting state, but due to alterations in the homeostasis they become activated. During pathological conditions it has been shown that microglia are able to express Na+-dependent high affinity glutamate transporters which are important for the uptake of the neurotransmitter glutamate. However, the mechanisms underlying the expression and the physiological role of it are not fully understood. In this thesis, it was found that the microglial glutamate transporter expression is connected to microglial activation and inflammatory events. The bacterial endotoxin lipopolysaccharide (LPS) was used to induce an environment mimicking neuroinflammation, a condition that occurs during almost any pathological condition in the CNS. It was found that LPS was able to increase the expression of the microglial glutamate transporter GLT-1 in a model system of essentially pure rat microglia. This effect was most likely mediated by the cytokine tumour necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), since the cytokine was able to mimic the effect of LPS by itself and the fact that antibodies against the TNF-α abolished the expression. Additionally, the LPS-induced increase in microglial GLT-1 expression could be inhibited by decreasing the release of TNF-α with the anti-inflammatory glucocorticoid corticosterone. The anaphylatoxin C5a, a component of the complement system, was also found to be able to induce microglial GLT-1 expression but in a different manner than LPS. The increased GLT-1 expression led to increased glutamate uptake from the extracellular space, which may be important to limit the excitotoxic effect of glutamate during pathological conditions. Furthermore, the increased glutamate uptake was directly coupled to an increased synthesis of the antioxidant glutathione. The glutamate partly fuelled the intracellular pool of glutamate in order to allow uptake of cystine, an amino acid that is one of the building blocks of the antioxidant glutathione, and was partly directly incorporated into glutathione. As a major antioxidant, glutathione was able to provide microglia with a self defence against reactive oxygen species. Furthermore, the increased glutathione levels provided microglia with better resistance to infections with herpes simplex virus due to the antiviral properties of the antioxidant. In response to herpes simplex virus infections, microglia are able to release TNF-α and up-regulate their GLT-1 expression in order to provide means for an increased glutathione synthesis and thus an increased viral resistance. In summary, the results show how microglial GLT-1 can be modulated and that increased resistance against oxidative stress and viral infections are two possible physiological functions of the increased microglial glutamate uptake.
Responsiveness and models of representation
(2022-06) Persson, Mikael; Sundell, Anders; The Quality of Government Institute
Researchontheopinion-policylinkhasshownthatthereisaconnectionbetween public preferencesandimplementedpolicy,albeitbiasedtowardsthepreferencesof the a uent.Wearguethatweneedtolooknotonlytheincomebias,butalsoatthe politicalcontentofthepolicies.Aretheresystematicbiasesagainstcertaintypes of policiesthatcausesuchpoliciestobeundersuppliedrelativetopreferences?We combinesurveydataonawiderangeofissuesfromovertwomillionrespondents with manuallycodeddataonimplementedpoliciesin43countriesovertime.We nd thatthereisapositiverelationshipbetweenopinionandpolicy,butalso nd evidence ofaresponsivenessgap:inmostcountries,implementedpoliciesaremore economically conservativethanwhatthepublicprefers,andtooculturallyliberal.
The Effects of an Education Reform on Democratic Citizenship
(2008-07) Persson, Mikael; Oscarsson, Henrik; QoG Institute
In the mid 1990s an extensive reform of the Swedish educational system took place in order to create a ‘school for everyone’ that was intended to function like a ‘social equalizer’. The new unified gymnasium initiated longer educational programs with an increased amount of civics courses. The aim of this study is to examine whether the well documented gap in levels of democratic citizenship characteristics between students on theoretical and vocational gymnasium study programs prevailed after this massive reform. Did the new educational system decrease the gap concerning political participation, knowledge, attentiveness and trust between students with different types of education? Given the vast amount of empirical research that has shown that education promotes democratic citizenship, the reform could be expected to result in a reduced civic gap. Contrary to the conventional wisdom in research on educational effects, results show no positive effects of initiating longer educational programs with more civic courses on the examined core dimensions of democratic citizenship. The gap in civic virtues between citizens from theoretical and vocational gymnasium study programs prevailed also after the unification of the educational system.
The Socialization Effect of Education on Authoritarian-Libertarian Values
(2025) Lindskog, Hilma; Persson, Mikael
This chapter examines the effect of socialization in education on the formation of authoritarian-libertarian values. Over the past few decades, education has emerged as an increasingly important predictor of electoral outcomes and political orientations, renewing academic debate on the underlying mechanisms that drive the association. This chapter provides an overview of the central theoretical perspectives and recent findings in the field. Beginning with an discussion of the different strands of research in the literature on political socialization and education, the chapter thereafterfocuses on the importance of schools as sites for socialization. Special emphasis is given to the contextual conditions facilitating attitudinal change, highlighting the fact that the school class composition and political context are expected to play central roles in determining whether and how attitudes are socialized. It further addressess the methodological difficulties involved in distinguising the direct socializing effects of education from selection effects into education. Finally, the chapter concludes by exploring avenues for future research.
What Are the Economic Consequences of Aligning Policies with Public Opinion?
(2025-11) Lindqvist, Jesper; Persson, Mikael; Sundell, Anders; The Quality of Governmen Institute
What are the economic consequences of policies that follow public opinion? We combine international survey data with fiscal statistics, and find that the public generally favors increased spending on most areas and lower taxes for most citizens. Consequently, in countries where policy follows public opinion, deficits grow and debt accumulates. The results do not mean that the public necessarily is irrational, as these surveys do not task respondents with balancing the budget. However, they do illustrate the limits of democratic models that uncritically value strict congruence between public opinion and policy.
Which Teaching Practices Promote Students’ Democracy Learning? A Systematic Review
(2025) Wallin, Pontus; Olson, Maria; Persson, Mikael
In this systematic review, we provide an overview of research regarding the question: Which teaching practices promote students’ democracy learning? We utilized a rigorous approach to thoroughly survey the literature and report research findings. The studies chosen focused on teaching practices, with the explicit goal of enhancing students’ democracy learning in school; that is, knowledge, skills, attitudes, or values related to democracy. This review encompasses both intervention studies, which investigate the hypothesized causal relation ship between specific teaching methods and students’ democracy learning, and correlational studies, which examine the connection between the classroom environment and students’ democracy learning. The studies indicate that teaching methods involving a high degree of student participation, such as discussions, group work, role-playing, simulations, and stu dent involvement in decision-making, effectively foster democracy learning. Furthermore, the studies suggest that an open and positive classroom environment, along with teacher engagement, leadership, and attitudes, are crucial factors in promoting students’ democracy learning. There are previous systematic reviews on related areas, but only a few focus on how teachers can design teaching to promote democracy learning. The review that most closely resembles this one is a recently published systematic review by Teegelbeckers et al. (2023). One of their most important conclusions is that teaching has differential effects on demo cratic competences. Considering these differential effects, the authors concluded that some practices have general positive effects. Among these are instruction with classroom discus sion, small-group work, application assignments, civic projects, and practicing democratic decision-making in simulations or school decision-making programs. However, the focus of the review was on citizenship education more broadly, albeit with an ambition to narrow it down to citizenship education related to liberal democracy. The scope of the search was also limited to studies published between 2010 and 2020. Their review also included studies of higher education at universities and colleges. This review serves an important purpose to give a comprehensive overview of empirical research focusing on students’ democracy learning in pre-college education