Promoting Ethnic Tolerance and Patriotism : the Role of Education System Characteristics
Abstract
The literature on political socialization has overlooked the influence of system characteristics of schooling on civic values and youth political identities. This article addresses that gap by investigating the degree to which system differentiation relates to the values of ethnic tolerance and patriotism. We distinguish between pedagogical differentiation and territorial differentiation. While the first concept relates to the contrast between early tracking and comprehensive education, the second term captures the contrast between federal versus unitary states. We find that comprehensive schooling and nonfederal systems are associated with smaller disparities of ethnic tolerance and patriotism across ethnic and social groups. Patriotism is positively linked to ethnic tolerance in nonfederal systems. We suggest that nonexclusionary forms of patriotism can be promoted by public education through some form of national regulation of the curriculum.