Democracy, Education, and Equality Graz-Schumpeter Lectures

This study asks whether democracy, modeled as competition between political parties that represent different interests in the polity, will result in educational funding policies that will, at least eventually, produce citizens who have equal capacities (human capital), thus breaking the link between family background and child prospects. Several models of the problem are studied, which vary according to the educational technology posited, i.e. the relationship between family inputs, school inputs, and the eventual human capital of the adult the child becomes.

Many believe that equality of opportunity will be achieved when the prospects of children no longer depend upon the wealth and education of their parents. The institution through which the link between child and parental prospects may be weakened is public education. Many also believe that democracy is the political institution that will bring about justice. This study, first published in 2006, asks whether democracy, modeled as competition between political parties that represent different interests in the polity, will result in educational funding policies that will, at least eventually, produce citizens who have equal capacities (human capital), thus breaking the link between family background and child prospects. In other words, will democracy engender, through the educational finance policies it produces, a state of equal opportunity in the long run?

1. A brief overview; 2. Models of democratic party competition; 3. Democratic competition over educational investment; 4. The dynamics of human capital with endogenous growth; 5. Estimation of technological parameters; 6. Conclusion.

This study asks whether democracy, modeled as competition between political parties that represent different interests in the polity, will result in educational funding policies that will, at least eventually, produce citizens who have equal capacities (human capital), thus breaking the link between family background and child prospects.

John E. Roemer is Elizabeth S. and A. Varick Stout Professor of Political Science at Yale University. He has published extensively in economics, political philosophy, and political science. His recent books include Political Competition (2001), Equality of Opportunity (1998), Theories of Distributive Justice (1996), and A Future for Socialism (Cambridge University Press, 1994). He was named a Felow of the Econometric Society in 1986.