Review of "Polarized by Degrees: How the Diploma Divide and the Culture War Transformed American Politics"

The great American philosopher John Dewey (2016) wrote that education is not only important for democracy. He argued that ‘education is democracy’. The point he was making was that how we learn and understand society, as well as the democratic values schools embed in their young people, is vital for a healthy and pluralistic democracy.
So, what effect has the dramatic expansion of higher education over several decades meant for our democratic societies?
Grossmann and Hopkins, in their sweeping investigation of the impact on American politics, provide strong evidence to show that this change has greatly contributed to the polarization of politics in the United States and the so-called culture wars.
The general argument – that the presence of an increasingly highly-educated electorate increases the prevalence of progressive values – is not new. The great political scientist Ronald Inglehart (2015) and colleagues found that this had led to a ‘silent revolution’ – a growth in support for liberal values that led to efforts to address discrimination against women and a range of minoritized groups.
In the book, Grossmann and Hopkins, showcase plentiful evidence of how this has happened in the United States and how it has transformed support for the two main political parties. More highly educated people have
become increasingly supportive of the Democratic Party, whilst those with lower levels of educational attainment have become more supportive of the Republicans. They show how this has fed into culture wars on issues
such as gay marriage and support for diversity and even abortion rights for women – with the highly educated holding progressive views and the less-well-educated holding much more socially conservative views. The book
plots the mass migration of highly-educated citizens to the Democrats and less-well-educated citizens to the Republicans over several decades.
The analysis of how these changing values have led to a realignment in political support – a seismic shift in the political landscape – is both comprehensive and convincing.
However, the depiction of culture wars and political polarization in the United States offers a popular account of recent political changes that does not bear up to scrutiny. Whilst Grossmann and Hopkins show how those with high and low levels of educational attainment have become much more likely to identify with the Demo crats and Republicans, respectively, they (rather strangely) ignore the fact that (according to opinion polling data) the proportion of Americans who identify with either party has declined significantly since the turn of the
century. Yes, the diploma divide marks a key fault line in support for the two parties and their candidates. But the polarization in American politics is not nearly as clear-cut as they describe.