With the help of Dutch parliamentary election data, we investigate educational differences in political participation in the Netherlands. The repertory of political activities has changed considerably in the past decades, and we show that active engagement is dominated by a well-educated participation elite. We look at a range of political activities: spectator activities, voting, membership of political parties, and non-electoral activities. Educational differences are manifest in almost all forms of political activity. But for some forms, especially the newer ones, the gap is larger than for others. The well- educated are not only overrepresented in numbers; they also are more active, on average, than those with lesser educational qualifications. One of the paradoxes at the heart of contemporary democratic politics is that more democratic opportunities have brought less political equality.
