Developing countries are currently experiencing unprecedented increases in primary
schooling. While education increases civic and political participation in developed
democracies, this may not occur in weakly institutionalized countries. Beyond concerns
about education’s effectiveness, education could contribute to local political capture
by dominant groups or conflict in divided societies. Leveraging variation across
local governments areas and gender in the intensity of Nigeria’s 1976 Universal Primary
Education reform—possibly the largest-scale educational expansion in African
history—to instrument for primary schooling, we identify large long-run political effects:
up to 33 years after starting primary school, citizens are considerably more
interested in politics, more likely to vote and contact local government councilors,
participate in community associations, and supportive of democracy in the abstract.
Contrary to concerns about potential anti-democratic effects, our results are strongest
among minority ethnic and religious groups and in fractionalized areas, and respondents
show no increase in support for political violence or own-group identification.