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3 - The End of Human Capital Solidarity?

from Part I - People

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 August 2021

By
Ben Ansell  and
Jane Gingrich
Edited by
Frances McCall Rosenbluth  and
Margaret Weir
Frances McCall Rosenbluth
Affiliation:
Yale University, Connecticut
Margaret Weir
Affiliation:
Brown University, Rhode Island
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Summary

This chapter examines the connection between mass expansion of education and skills and growing discontent with established parties and the functioning of democracy. We argue that the expansion of higher education since the 1980s has not fulfilled the aims of the proponents of “social investment” strategies, as many university graduates enter jobs mismatched with their skills. Furthermore, inequalities have grown across individuals with similar skills working in similar industries as certain firms have captured the lion’s share of economic rents. Accordingly, rising inequality among the university educated and the accompanying unmet expectations of many graduates is producing important new cleavages, splitting young from old, urban from suburban, and the globally competitive from the traditional professional class. We refer to this as “the end of human capital solidarity” as highly skilled individuals diverge from one another in political preferences and satisfaction.

Keywords

inequalityhuman capitalsatisfaction with democracypopulism
Type
Chapter
Information
Who Gets What?
The New Politics of Insecurity
 , pp. 52 - 78
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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