176-3-809
The modernisation hypothesis suggested a particular direction of change: more education and income should beget greater democracy. But as the right-hand chart shows, there is virtually no statistical association at all between changes in a country’s level of education and its measured level of democracy. If this is true, there is no particular reason to hope that more education will lead to a more democratic world.
A recent NBER paper* sheds light on why this might be the case. Those who posit that more schooling leads to greater democracy often have specific ideas about how people’s attitudes change as a result of their becoming more educated, arguing that it creates people who are more willing to challenge authority. It is possible, however, that education reinforces authority and the power of ruling elites indeed, it may often be designed to do precisely this. The study tried to find out which of these competing ideas of the effects of education is more accurate.
The authors compared a group of Kenyan girls in 69 primary schools whose students were randomly selected to receive a scholarship with similar students in schools which received no such financial aid. Previous studies had shown that the scholarship programme led to higher test scores and increased the likelihood that girls enrolled in secondary school. Overall, it significantly increased the amount of education obtained. For the new study the authors tried to see how the extra schooling had affected the political and social attitudes of the women in question.

A. 어휘
modernisation 현대화. beget 아이를 낳다, 일으키다, 생기게 하다.
virtually 사실상, 실질적으로. association 관련, 협회.
measured 整然(정연)한, 표준에 맞는, 정확히 측정한.
sheds light on 비추다. cf. shed 발산하다, 뿌리다. posit 단정하다, 앉히다.
reinforce 강화시키다. authority 권위. ruling elites 지배 엘리트.
precisely 정확하게. competing ideas 상호 경쟁적인 아이디어.
accurate 정확한. primary schools 초등학교. randomly 無作爲(무작위)로.
select 선발하다. financial aid 재정적 지원. obtain 획득하다.