Polarisering in Nederland

Opleidingsniveau als scheidslijn?

Samenvatting

In this study, we explore differences in values between educational groups in the Netherlands. Scholars argue that, due to e.g. globalisation, these differences may have grown over time, leading to a new cleavage in society. Using Dutch data from the European Values Study (1999-2017), we assess whether this cleavage exists in the Netherlands. In addition, we test the assumption that educational polarisation has grown in the last two decades for a broad spectrum of values: post-materialism, moral permissiveness, religiosity, intolerance, traditional gender roles, and social and political trust. Our findings suggest that there is not much evidence for growing polarisation between educational groups in the Netherlands. Although we do observe significant differences between educational groups in all values studied here, we cannot see that these differences have grown over time, with one exception: political trust.