A Study on the Relationship Between Mean Years of Schooling, Literacy Skills Level of the Countries, and Their Level of Democratic Development

Abstract

This study’s objective is to examine the relationship between the mean years of schooling, level of adult literacy
skills, and democratic development levels. The study was designed as a relational survey model. The analytics
employed is the path analysis, which tests the existence of causal relationship between the variables. The statistical
analysis indicates that a significant and strong relationship exists between the mean years of schooling and adult
literacy skills and further that a significant, medium level, relationship is present between the countries’ adult literacy
skills and their democratic development levels. Moreover, literacy skills create a significant mediation impact on the
relationship between the mean years of schooling and democratic development level. Also significant is the indirect
impact of the nations’ mean years of schooling on their democratic development levels. Countries seeking to sustain
and protect participative and deep democracy may need to review their formal and informal education policies.
Therefore, it may be especially necessary to attach greater importance to cognitive-verbal processes in formal
education institutions as a departure point of action.