Academic articles

Western education is credited with producing democratic reformers from non-Western countries—and blamed for training dictators, elitist technocrats, and antiliberal leaders. Why do similar programs generate such divergent political trajectories? Drawing on an international, multidisciplinary literature, this article critically analyzes 94 studies to explore when, how, and for whom Western education influences democratic attitudes and outcomes in non-Western countries. It develops an interdisciplinary framework that pinpoints key theoretical and methodological themes explaining how Western educational programs can foster democratic engagement, entrench illiberal rule, or have limited political impact. The analysis highlights underexplored contextual factors shaping trainees’ experiences, and proposes methodological strategies—individual-level, longitudinal, comparative designs embedded in home-country contexts—to move the field beyond the currently thin empirical debate. Against a backdrop of rising East–West tensions, the article aims to inform realistic judgments about the prodemocratic potential of Western educational programs—and the risks of relying on them uncritically.

Worldwide democratic backsliding and surge of authoritarianism have revived interest in the potential of schooling to support democracy. Yet, while many intellectuals, donors, governments, and civil society organizations continue acting on this belief, the empirical literature they rely on is remarkably divided. We challenge this gridlock by offering a theoretical and methodological framework to account for conflicting findings and to facilitate resolving this debate. Our approach combines ideas on how different levels of schooling, ways of accounting for different contexts, and epistemic community influences can affect the relationship between education and political regime. To examine these ideas, we leverage statistical meta-analysis of synthesized empirical evidence base. Contrary to mainstream views, we find that, while the overall education-political regime relationship is positive, it is small and contingent. Pro-democratic effects of education come mostly from primary schooling and are uncertain beyond this level. Country-specific factors may explain part, though not all cross-national variation. Finally, we detect strong evidence of dissemination and publication biases that shape our knowledge on education-democracy linkage.