Education raises participation in absolute rather than relative terms.

Evidence

Evidence uncovered in the course of this research strongly suggests that the effects of education on social participation are typically absolute, not relative. My education increases my social participation, and generally speaking, your education does not lower my participation. So if we both graduate from college, we should both tend to become more civically engaged. Under these circumstances it would be appropriate to control for rising educational levels. However, doing so has the effect of amplifying declines in participation and minimizing increases, so given the nature of my argument, the more conservative course is not to control for education. — Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival…, 1508

Categorization

• QUESTION: Worth chasing: is education’s civically-lifting effect really non-competitive across a population, or only within certain credential ranges?
• XREF: connects to: Schooling mainly raises earnings by securing year-round employment for marginalized workers