This study argues that social closure between higher- and lower-educated citizens — meaning large shares of people have few or no close ties to differently educated others — strengthens and reinforces differences in immigration attitudes and in voting for new left or far-right parties across Western democracies.
Does early-life trauma influence battlefield behavior? Evidence from Irish regiments in the American Civil War shows that experiencing the Irish Potato Famine more than a decade earlier made soldiers more likely to desert.
This study asks whether citizens in consolidated European democracies have become less supportive of democracy and whether any decline is widespread or concentrated in specific age groups or countries. Using new cross‑national survey evidence from 18 European countries (1981–2018), the authors disentangle age, cohort and period effects and report results from pre‑registered analyses to reduce selective reporting. The paper documents continued overall endorsement of self‑governance, while identifying country‑specific signs that some younger cohorts express weaker forms of democratic support.