Education is a well-known predictor of political participation and creates political inequalities. However, educational experiences vary strongly across European countries even when the educational level is the same. This paper spells out the causal chains through which institutional systems of educational services provide individuals with participation-relevant resources and motivation. In addition, it links the results to the wider debate about socio-economic and political inequalities and their institutional embeddedness in advanced industrial democracies. The analysis builds on various rounds of the European Social Survey and institutional indicators as macro-level variables.
