Education is the strongest factor in explaining what citizens do in politics and how they think about politics. The notion that formal education is the primary mechanism behind citizenship characteristics is basically uncontested (Nie et al 1996:2). Although research on political participation has consistently observed a robust and positive relationship between education and political participation, there is fairly little systematic analysis of the political consequences of the existence of educational cleavages for the functioning of modern democracies. The first part of the paper examines, with the use of the European Social Survey (ESS) 2008 data, whether there are educational differences in the extent and form of political participation, political attitudes, and political preferences in ten Western European democracies. Also, the paper will examine whether these educational differences are particular for specific democratic systems, or can be observed across Western European counties. The second part of the paper explores the political consequences of these educational cleavages. It turns out that, though the well educated currently comprise less than a third of the population in these ten countries, they dominate almost every political venue. The well-educated vote more often, are much more politically active, and are becoming omnipresent in Parliaments. The less educated, on the other hand, are increasingly underrepresented in most layers of the participation pyramid. The education gap has been most manifest with regard to political trust, cynicism and the political opinions on socio-cultural issues, such as the admittance and cultural integration of immigrants and EU integration. The educational gap has given way to successful mobilization by contemporary populist style parties in Western Europe which has made the less educated more visible in the European political landscape.
