The relationship between level of education and household income in the justification of political violence in the EU: the moderating effect of poverty at the country level

Abstract

Several studies show that political violence justification (PVJ) is associated with unfavourable social and economic characteristics such as poor education, low income, and poverty at the national level. However, the mechanisms by which these factors interact remain unclear. This study aims to find out whether poverty at the country level (contextual poverty) moderates the relationship between individuals’ educational level and household income, and PVJ in the European Union (EU). We perform an analysis using a dataset of 15.347 individuals from twelve EU countries who participated in the European Values Survey, 2017. Logistic regressions models with interaction terms were used to analyze factors related to PVJ. Our findings are twofold. First, we find no evidence of educational level and PVJ's relationship in countries with medium levels of contextual poverty. In contrast, in countries with low levels of contextual poverty, individuals with medium educational level were associated with higher PVJ. Second, individuals living in countries with lower levels of contextual poverty and higher household income were associated with higher PVJ. We conclude that more individuals tend to justify political violence in countries with lower contextual poverty levels - individuals with medium educational level and higher household income. To our knowledge, this is the first study to find evidence that education and socioeconomic status may amplify PVJ in the EU.