Why Do the Less Educated Oppose Trade Openness? A Test of Three Explanations in the Netherlands

The well-documented opposition to trade openness among the less educated is frequently interpreted in terms of the factor endowment model, suggesting that it is the insecure economic position of the less educated that underlies their disapproval. This theory is, however, contested. Consequently, we have developed two alternative explanations, dereification theory and political-knowledge theory, which are informed by the literature on economic globalization and the broader literature in cultural and political sociology and political science. We test these three theories by analyzing survey data (N = 1,302) from the Netherlands (2012), which are particularly suitable for this purpose. We reveal that higher levels of opposition to trade openness among the less educated can be attributed to: 1) their lower levels of cultural capital (corroborating dereification theory) and 2) their lower levels of political knowledge, but 3) not to their weaker labor-market position. The implications of these findings are discussed.