Zoom only
Foundational studies of political behaviour find that university education facilitates the development of political attitudes and shapes socialization outcomes. But in unconsolidated democracies where ethnic political parties dominate and identity is politically salient, education may play a different role in shaping patterns of mass politics. In this paper, we develop a framework for understanding the consequences of political party intervention in annual university elections, a common feature of university life in the Middle East and the Global South. We draw on pre- and post-election surveys at the American University of Beirut (AUB) in Lebanon and argue that ethnic political parties recruit partisan students as "party agents" who mobilize unaffiliated students through intense forms of peer-to-peer contact.
Using a conjoint experiment embedded in both surveys, we show that these elections facilitate horizontal socialization by increasing support for in-group political elites and, to a lesser extent, ethnic political parties. By locating the university as an understudied site of competitive and contentious politics, our findings contribute new insights into the role of education in shaping political attitudes. The persistence of ethnic political power can be attributed in part to party activity in less obviously political arenas which have not been systematically studied.
Due to limited spaces for COVID restrictions, participation on site will be allowed on a first-come, first-served basis. The speaker will connect via zoom, and as the room is not equipped with hybrid teaching we recommend bringing one’s own laptop. The talk will be live-streamed and participants will receive the zoom link once registered.